


Still Right Here

by navaan



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, Misunderstandings, Multiverse, Post-Avengers (2012), Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-09 08:46:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 58,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3243503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers tries to fit into this new day and age he woke up to. At the very least he has friends and a purpose again, but that doesn't mean his path is clear now. In another world Tony Stark is trying to make things work with Steve finally and things seem to be going better than expected – until things get complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a second story inspired by the wonderful art by [**Dingobait**](http://dingobait.tumblr.com/) made for the 2014 Steve/Tony Reverse Big Bang at . I started this story right after finishing [](http://navaan.livejournal.com/140275.html)_Too perfect not to end the world_.
> 
> You can also read and comment at Livejournal. All chapters are collected [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/178081.html).

For a while there it had been hard enough to accept that this loud city full of electric lights and blaring car horns was his New York, his home, barely recognizable and foreign, but the only home he'd ever known. In light of that it was strange that fighting an alien army didn't even make him think twice about it. Combat was something he knew. War was something that seemed more familiar than quite a few other things he'd seen since S.H.I.E.L.D. had found him. 

He'd felt estranged, out of step, like this wasn't really his world anymore, but suddenly it all fell back into place. Protecting his home, protecting civilians, containing the damage done to Manhattan as far as that was possible, and fighting side by side with a group of people with special skills. All of them had proven that they were good at what they were doing. All of them were used to working alone, but the moment the crisis threatened to overwhelm them they simply acted, did what was necessary, did _more_ than could be expected. And worked as a _team_.

He looked over at Stark, who he'd been glad to note had been standing proudly while they'd put Loki away. For a very long, dragged out moment there he'd been sure that Stark had not only chosen the sacrifice play there, but had only returned from what could have been a one way trip through the portal for them to bury him. 

But Stark was as fine as anybody could possibly be after what they'd just gone through. That didn't mean he looked good.

For some reason Hulk hadn't given way to Doctor Banner yet, but was sticking close to Stark, who was chatting at him constantly as if this was just an everyday occurrence for him. Steve could admit to himself that he didn't actually know enough of Stark's life outside of what had ended up in his S.H.I.E.L.D. files (and him being the self-sacrificing sort certainly hadn't made it into those) to completely dismiss the possibility that for him this sort of crazy was normal. And who was he to judge, when he was feeling more at home fighting a battle against actual _aliens from outer space_ than going down to any sort of coffee shop ordering one of these ridiculously named and overpriced things that seemed to have taken the place of a simple cup of coffee?

Stark was turning his helmet in his hands, inspecting the way the faceplate, that Thor had ripped from it when they'd been worried about him, dangled from it. His expression was pained, as if the condition of that one piece of armor was in fact the worst thing that had happened to him today. “That's not easily fixable,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “I'll have to get started on a new one, I think. Might as well.”

Hulk made a growling noise and reached out. Stark didn't even flinch, the helmet just a little piece of red and gold tinted metal in the big green hands of their monstrous ally. The metal groaned, screeched, and the Hulk handed the now dented helmet back to Iron Man. Steve winced a little at the faceplate now pressed into place, but rendering the dented helmet completely unusable. Stark took it with a slightly dumbfounded expression, staring at it as if he needed to process what had just happened, then – as tired as he was – suddenly beamed up at the Hulk and said: “Thanks! You're pretty nice for a rage monster. After this nobody will buy into your PR schtick.”

The monster in question gave Stark a tolerant look and huffed. 

It should have been surreal, but somehow it seemed exactly right, perfectly in line with the unbelievable things that had happened today. Steve's own lips raised into a half-smile of his own, when his eyes met Stark's.

“We need someone to lift that, so S.H.I.E.L.D. transport can come through,” Natasha said, pointing ahead. Her tone was level and she was holding her head high, but Steve could see she was just as tired as the rest of them. Rubble was blocking most streets around them, firefighters and relief units had arrived and were already doing their fair share of work. Stark made a step forward as if he was volunteering, but even in the armor it looked terribly unsteady. The Hulk simply jumped forward, going into action without any questions asked – and with Thor keeping an eye on Loki back at home for the moment, he was their only real powerhouse present anyway.

Stark blinked at the spot where he'd just been standing, not exactly dumbfounded, but maybe wondering. Steve was beginning to worry that perhaps he had taken a hit to the head and really needed to see a doctor. Armor or no armor, he'd fallen from the sky and who knew what kind of hits he'd taken even before that during the fight.

“You should sit down,” Steve told him, his own voice slightly rougher than usual with exhaustion and the pain of the wounds he'd sustained. “You've done enough for one day.”

It looked like the man was about to protest, but when Steve stepped up and indicated a block of concrete sticking out of the street, he just nodded, terribly quiet for someone who always had some smart-ass comeback for everything.

He sat down heavily, the joints of the armor making a tired sound. Dark red blood was on his face and Steve couldn't see where exactly it was coming from. They were all dirty and lathered in cuts, but Iron Man had been wearing his armor through most of it. And now sitting there, exhausted blood on his face, face ashen, he looked bad, like he was really about to fall down any minute. Fear shot through Steve at the thought.

He looked around, could hear Hulk smashing things with a roar down the street, wished Doctor Banner was here now to talk to Stark, saw Natasha standing close to them, also watching the man with an unreadable expression. 

He'd only really known these people for the duration of this whole mess, but the thought of losing one of them now that the battle was over and done with was unbearable. It was the first time he'd truly felt a connection with anyone since he'd woken up – and he felt _that_ counted for more than anything else.

Stark was contemplating his helmet again and sighed, then tried to stand.

Steve finally got over whatever it was that had been holding him back and stepped forward to push him back down with one hand on the armored shoulder. Stark looked up at him surprised. “Are you sure you don't need a medic?” Steve asked.

“Armor is monitoring everything anyway,” Stark said with a tired wave of the hand. “I'm fine.”

“How do you know what it's finding without helmet?”

The man looked down on the banged up piece of metal in his hands and smiled crookedly. “Made the check before,” he said, and Steve thought he might be lying, but decided to let that slide. Stark seemed like a man who'd take this as a matter of pride.

So, realizing he still had his hand on the other man's armored shoulder, he patted it once, as he would once have Bucky's, affectionately and relieved that the fighting was over and all of them were alive, and stepped back to give Stark some room.

“I wasn't joking about shawarma. No idea what it is, but now that I'm still here, I really want to try it. I'm also pretty hungry. So right about now would be nice.” Stark didn't look at him, but off at something in the distance, his brows knitted as if he was thinking about something.

Steve smiled at the flood of words. He could emphasize with the general thought. At this point he couldn't even remember when he'd last eaten. And, damn, he was thirsty. “Let's do that then,” he conceded. 

Natasha was still watching them. When their eyes met she walked over to them slowly, holding herself very straight. “I'm really hungry anyway. Let's do it right now,” she said.

“So shawarma then? If they're still in business,” Hawkeye added, walking toward them from the opposite side of the street. “Where's that place you saw?”

Stark pointed into the direction down the street and made a wavy hand-gesture. “It was around there, somewhere. I was a little distracted fighting aliens at the time when I saw it, but I'll know it when I see it.”

“You had time to ponder food while fighting aliens?” Barton asked. “You're really something.”

“Just good at multitasking,” Stark said. It was good to see him talk again, much better than the quiet exhaustion of a few minutes ago. “We should probably invite Thor and wait until Banner will fit in a seat again,” Stark pointed out after a moment.

Steve laughed, relieved, actually liking the idea of ending this day by sharing a meal with the people he'd just been fighting alongside of. For people who weren't a team they were suddenly getting along pretty well - and eating together after a battle, _that_ was something he was familiar with. He'd been so used to the Howling Commandos that it would be strange to just go back to his solitary life after all this. A shared meal seemed natural.

Natasha wasn't focusing on them anymore though, but apparently was listening for something in the distance. “Sounds very quiet,” she said, over the loud noises of the clean-up work around them, clearly contradicting her words. Steve listened closely for whatever it was Natasha _wasn't_ hearing and realized what it was, just as Stark said: “No Hulk? Someone want to gather up Dr. Banner so we can leave?”

“How are we getting you out of the tin can?” Steve asked Stark, not sure how damaged the suit really was, just as Natasha started off down the street towards the spot where they'd last seen the Hulk.

Stark smiled at Steve with an amused expression. “Easy there, Cap, we haven't known each other that long.” 

Natasha huffed and rolled her eyes at him as she passed them, then met Steve's eyes expectantly as if she was waiting for how he would take Stark's annoying brand of humor now.

“Story of my life though. People just want my money or get me out of whatever I'm wearing,” Stark added.

“I'm sure some want you for that big brain of yours, too,” Steve said with a straight face. It earned him another amused smile from Stark and an appreciative nod from Natasha. Apparently the way to go with Stark, was not to let yourself be wound up, while not underestimating him along the way.

 _That_ would have been useful information to have before this all started.

“Let's go eat then,” Barton said and started walking, too. 

“Who'll get Thor?” Stark asked, trying to lift himself up into a standing position.

Steve just smiled to himself. He was dirty and exhausted, his back hurt from crashing into cars and buildings, his stomach hurt from taking the blast of an alien weapon and even his shield arm was tired enough for him to want to put his shield down, but for the first time since arriving here he felt at home in the present.

He had lost all he knew, but he could make new friends here, find a new band of brothers, a little family – and it seemed he could also find a purpose.

* * *

He looked down at the cover of TIME magazine that showed him and Stark sharing a moment in the middle of the rubble. “Avengers – The heroes of New York” the title read.

He hadn't bothered to read the article, didn't really care about the speculation, or even the description of what had happened that day. Stark had given a press conference after with Thor and him tagging along for the most part and some S.H.I.E.L.D. and government officials had given out statements, but most of the details of that day were only known to the people who had actually been involved in it.

Now the Avengers had gone their separate ways after the crisis, but Steve still felt he shared a truer connection with them than he did with anyone else. And they were all staying in touch in their own messed up ways. All but Thor that was, because nobody had heard from Thor since he'd taken Loki to Asgard. But Stark and even Banner, who wasn't outright saying that he'd taken Stark up on his offer to take refuge in whatever lab or hiding place the billionaire had offered him, were staying in touch with the rest of them without prompting. That was as much as Steve could ask for under the circumstances. 

Working for S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed like the thing to do, giving him the chance to do something worthwhile and play on the same team as Widow and Hawkeye. It was obvious that the world still needed protection from whatever new threat would be next, after Asgardian gods and alien armies. He'd fought hard to get into a place to serve his country during World War II, to make a difference, so now S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed the place for him to be. Fury didn't say much about it, but it was obvious that he knew exactly what Steve was looking for and he offered it readily, no questions asked, no real demands made. 

Steve knew to be suspicious. He wasn't a naif. The whole Tesseract incident had taught him that working for S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't always be easy. Of course, the army hadn't always made things easy for him either, with people trying to use him in their own games of power. He wasn't afraid to butt heads again to get to the place where he really wanted to be, if it came down to it. But for the moment this was okay. At the very least it would be working as part of something again, and that was exactly what he needed right now to get his bearings and carve out a place for himself in this brave new world and this new life.

Moving to Washington felt like leaving New York to go to war all over again. “The war will be different, though. You know that,” Hawkeye pointed out, when he voiced the thought.

“Is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing?” Steve asked back, looking down at the envelope Hawkeye had shoved at him.

“Who knows. War is war. None of that is ever really good news by any standards.” He shrugged and waited for Steve to look at the contents of the envelope.

“What is this?”

“From Stark. Early Christmas present, he said. Gave it to me last week when I got my new arrows from him.”

“He made you arrows? I thought he didn't like working for S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Steve asked, pondering the envelope some more and deliberately not opening it. Barton had been dealing in secrets for so long that he probably didn't even remember how to not be nosy.

“He's not working for S.H.I.E.L.D.. But he made some enhancements to their design just for me. I had to promise not to let our people look at it though. Matter of pride, or something. It was actually pretty fun working with him. He and Banner work on all kinds of weird stuff. Apparently they are having a geeky love affair nobody is supposed to know about.”

“Banner still there?” With a pang he realized that maybe both Banner and Stark had been there when he'd left New York and that maybe it would have been okay to drop by Stark Tower and visit, say good-bye.

“Nat says she isn't sure, but at the very least it seems Stark knows where Banner is.”

“Good,” Steve said and smiled. “We never know when we might need both of them again.”

“Yeah, with Thor gone for the time being it's good to know where the rest of the team is hiding out. Think he'll be back?”

Steve shrugged. “I'm sure he's busy at home, but he'll come around for a visit when he has the time. At least I hope so. No idea how far away Asgard actually is.”

He put the envelope aside and only opened it when he was alone in his new, clean and very silent apartment. A phone and key card fell out. There was a post-it sticking to the Stark phone reading: “Don't call me from the S.H.I.E.L.D. junk they gave you. It's an insult.” He smirked, because he was at least halfway sure this actually meant that Tony didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D. to not bug his phone or something. After spending so much time with agents he was beginning to see his point, but he still had to chuckle. He found only one number in the phone's memory and the contact read “Iron Man” with a shiny picture of a flying armor assigned to it. 

He tucked the phone away and looked at the key card, another note stuck to it, reading: “If you ever miss New York, you have your own floor. Tony.”

It took him a moment to make sense of that, but then he smiled, warmed by the gesture. It seemed if he wanted to he could drop by that ugly tall building any time he wanted now. He wouldn't take Stark up on it right away or any time soon, but it was nice to know he had friends out there who trusted him enough to give them their futuristic door keys.

Maybe he _should_ drop by for a visit.

Two days later Stark was announced dead on national television. Steve sat alone on his sofa watching as Stark's home in Malibu was destroyed and fell to the sea with the man himself trapped inside it.

He was feeling numb enough to not feel devastated. How could someone who survived an alien army be killed like this? In the public eye and on life television? By _human_ terrorists?

For the next hour he kept watching the news, looking at all the footage, listening to all of it hoping for more information – waiting for one of his two phones to ring. But S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't call him in – and the phone Stark had given him remained predictably silent.

He spent a sleepless night.

Of course, Stark's death made the front page of every paper in the country. For once Steve didn't go for his morning run, but made his way directly to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. 

“We have to do something about this,” Steve said, trying to make Fury look at him.

“We're not getting involved at this point.”

“Why?”

Fury huffed. “We've been ordered to stand down.”

“Since when are we doing anything, but what we think is right?” he said, putting as much heat into his tone as he deemed appropriate. The people who could order them to stand down were also the people who'd ordered a nuclear strike against New York that Fury himself had tried to prevent against orders. 

“We are,” Fury said, studying Steve calmly. “The order came from the presidential office. And secret agency or not, we can't just go in guns blazing, just because Iron Man was killed and we have a personal interest. We're not in this for private vendettas.”

Steve didn't back down or look away when Fury stared him right in the eye. “This isn't about Stark being an Avenger. This is about the Mandarin being a terrorist.”

Fury smirked. “Is he? We never got a real lock on him to be honest.”

“Something about all of this is...”

“Not right,” Fury concluded. “I agree. So Stark is our best bet.”

“Stark?” Steve asked, incredulously. The first sliver of hope was trying to form into some real emotion, but he tried not to get his hopes up, before someone right out said it out loud.

“It seems it takes quite a bit more to kill Iron Man. Our satellite data gives us reason to believe he got away.” Fury smiled at him smugly.

Natasha and Clint were sitting outside of Fury's office when Steve stepped out and he had to ask himself if someone had alerted them to his presence on base today or if they had come for the same reason he had. It was so rare that all of them were in the same country and at a time like this it seemed like an awfully convenient coincidence.

Maybe people realized that Captain America was a good strategist and knew when following orders was important, but also that sometimes you had to make up your own mind.

It didn't matter.

Tony Stark was alive.

* * *

When all was over and Pepper and Tony had just finished another press conference that had been broadcasted live on most news stations, Steve took out his phone and texted: “Glad you're still breathing.”

“Did you mourn me?” Tony texted back, a second later.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. kept him busy. There was always a crisis or secret op that needed the extra power. He got along with most agents, could deal with the hero worship, could even deal with the stares and whispers. But he missed having friends, a team that had his back.

So far the only time he'd felt like that since waking from the ice had been fighting alongside the other Avengers in New York. But they were all living their own lives. He only rarely saw Black Widow and Hawkeye when they were sent on the same missions, which didn't happen often. None of them stayed at the base for any length of time.

At least this time he was on mission with Clint.

“Is this really _the_ Captain America?” a young agent asked. He was standing beside Clint on board of their transport flight. He pretended not to hear, but Clint rolled his eyes.

“How many Captain Americas are there?” the female agent who'd been asked hissed back.

“I don't know? Two now?”

“One,” the woman hissed back. “Everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. knows that.”

Steve tried not to look at them, but some days all of this made him feel more alone than anything. “So what is this all about then?” he asked Clint, not sure why he had been chosen to go on this particular op.

“There is this Latverian guy who tries to get his hands on all kinds of old Hydra junk. I suppose we are trying to keep it out of his hands, just in case there are more things hidden there that could cause Tesseract-magnitude incidents.” Clint was shrugging and then went back to testing his bow.

“New bow?” he asked, because he hadn't seen this one before. 

“Hmm.”

“Stark?” he asked, whispering.

“Yeah. Haven't seen him for months though. Seems to be pretty busy with something or other. He sent this to me. Still don't know how he knew where to find me. Things like that tend to make me a little uneasy.”

Steve nodded along. He hadn't seen much of anyone really, but recently he'd thought about taking Tony up on his offer and just drop by Stark Tower one day, just to make sure it was still okay to. He still had the key card and had never even tried it. And he still had only S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assurances that Stark had lived through the Mandarin incident without suffering any lasting injuries.

But this wasn't the time and place to ponder this. He needed to focus on the job. After that he could think about what to do next.

“Latverian guy, huh?” he asked. “What do you need me for then?”

“Well, it's Hydra stuff and you are the only one here with first-hand experience of infiltrating operational Hydra bases. Apparently, the last time the Latverian guy left some robots behind for our agents to punch, too. Robots sophisticated enough to even impress Stark.”

“Does the Latverian guy have a name?” he asked.

“Victor von Doom.”

“You're kidding? If that doesn't bode well.”

“What it says on the tin, I guess.” Clint laughed and went back to making sure his equipment was in good working order. Steve watched him, understanding the need to do it. His shield was very important to him, too. All professionals took care of the tools that they had to depend on in a fight. But the younger agents were still watching him and he really didn't feel like facing all of it today. So instead he sat down beside Clint and waited for them to arrive. Hopefully, there would be robots. Punching something sounded like a good plan.

Agent Dent, one of the older agents, came out of the cockpit to talk to his team. Steve listened attentively as the younger agents received their orders, although he wasn't included in their little strategy meeting. Hawkeye finally leaned back, eyes hidden behind dark glasses and watched the proceedings with him. 

The agent came to stand in front of them next. He nodded to Barton, then smiled at Steve and said: “It's an honor to finally meet you, sir,” he said.

Steve nodded at him. “I'm still not quite sure what I'll be doing here today.”

“Oh, we requested some back-up. There was an incident with some triggered security systems last time.”

“Robots,” Hawkeye said with a smirk.

“Shouldn't we have called in Stark then?” Steve asked. 

“He's not working for S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Agent Dent said gravely, as if bringing up that name was an insult or at least a nuisance. “I hear he does us some favors once in a while on the technological side of things, but outside of the Avengers Initiative Iron Man has no ties with S.H.I.E.L.D. Our own scientists aren't amateurs either. They know what to expect down there. We don't need to call in Iron Man for this one,”

“I see,” Steve said and smiled when Barton chuckled beside him. At least _he_ knew that Steve hadn't been suggesting to get Stark here for a technical consultation, but had joked about having someone who knew his way around punching robots on the team. 

Agent Dent looked at both of them then, questioning. He was a big man, looking quite impressive in his black special ops gear and with his close cropped brown hair and clean shaven face. He looked like someone who knew and didn't fear combat. “Really an honor, Captain,” he repeated and saluted Steve in a casual way, before making his way back to the front, quietly exchanging word with his second in command. The slightly younger man nodded. When he looked at him and Barton, Steve caught him staring. The cold, taxing gaze made him take note.

“What's his problem?” Barton asked. The little byplay had obviously registered with him too.

“How would I know what's going on with today's youngsters?”

Hawkeye muffled a startled laugh. “It's good to know you have a sense of humor, Cap. Natasha always tells me I'm annoying when I try to be funny on the job.”

Steve kept his face straight as he said: “We haven't touched down yet, soldier.”

“We're going to any minute now,” the young agent beside Agent Dent said loudly. When Steve looked up the piercing eyes were still glued to him. He frowned. The man wasn't showing him any outright animosity, but with how things were, Steve was honestly a little surprised he didn't get some openly shown wariness more often. Even among the troops there had always been those who didn't trust him on principle. Not everyone dealt well with someone with enhanced skills in their midst, even if Steve had never asked for special treatment – he'd just not been afraid to butt heads to get his way when it was in everybody's best interest. That was enough to offend some people.

Clint just huffed and leaned back again. “Overeager pub,” he mumbled. 

Steve was inclined to agree, but held his tongue. He knew what it was like to not be taken seriously and had hated enough to try and not treat others like it when he didn't have reason to.

The plane touched down in the Carpathian Mountains. They had to make a short track up to the abandoned Hydra base. Steve enjoyed the clear air and the possibility to stretch his muscles, before going into any kind of combat situation. They had a team consisting of three relatively young S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists with them who weren't enjoying the short trip at all. 

Steve was walking beside Agent Dent when the base came into view, most of it completely hidden inside the rock. “Can I ask what kind of security we're expecting, sir?” he asked, aware of Hawkeye only a few feet away, trying to get a better view of the base, and always on the lookout.

The agent shrugged. “We hope there won't be anything. But with Hydra who knows what kind of systems they would have implemented? And if someone already scavenged this base...”

“I see,” Steve said, feeling like he was beginning to sound like a broken record. His mouth set into a thin line. This was the first time that he was so directly confronted with things from his own past, or very recent life, and the thought of even remnants of Hydra made his skin crawl. He'd seen too much of their crazy schemes and inhuman experiments. Part of him wished that whoever had decided to send him on this mission would have found something else for him to do instead.

But bitter thoughts were not something he allowed himself to dwell on, not when he had a job to do, so he swallowed them down and focused on the mission at hand. “Why did they send you, Clint?” he asked instead. “You'd think they'd have enough hot spots to deal with.”

“Don't know,” Clint answered. “Got the assignment last minute. Probably because I had a look at the robots last time. Fury assigned me.” He was still wearing the sun glasses, so it was hard to really read him, his face a blank mask for the moment. 

Dent nodded, and a thoughtful look passed through his eyes. “The more the merrier,” he said, gruffly.

His second in command, Agent Desmond, as Steve had learned minutes ago, spoke up: “We don't know what's waiting for us, gentlemen. Better be prepared than sorry.” 

Steve felt his own lips quirk into a smile at that and was glad to see Clint smirk back at him. It wasn't like either of them were new at this game. It was hard to tell how much actual combat Desmond had seen though. 

It became apparent very quickly when they reached the base that there weren't any booby traps waiting for them. Of course, that was a good thing, but somewhere deep down he could admit to himself that part of him was yearning for something to fight. But the base had been abandoned a long time ago. Still seeing the insignia scattered around the offices and labs, the big Hydra symbols on the doors, was enough to make a chill run down his spine. For everyone else Hydra was a ghost from the past, but he had been fighting them tooth and nail with Bucky, Peggy and the Commandos not so long ago in his own memory. It seemed so far away sometimes with all that had happened, all the things he'd had to adjust to, but it hadn't been that long at all since waking up.

The labs were old and had been gathering dust for years. Barton vanished nearly the moment it was clear that they wouldn't have any trouble accessing the labs. Steve didn't question him. Hawkeye was a professional and he would be doing whatever he had been told to do when sent here. 

He followed a team of two scientists, Agent Desmond and two other agents into the main lab. It was stuffed with a strange tech collection. He recognized some of the technology, could see how this lab had been on the verge of unleashing some nasty surprises to win the war. 

Stopped in time, it seemed.

While the younger, female scientist made herself busy on what looked like a control panel, her older male colleague made himself busy in another corner, inspecting one of the big machines there. Steve took a look around the room. It was obvious that he wasn't needed here, but he was still glad that he was in full gear, albeit not wearing his cowl yet, and carrying his shield. There was a big metal platform on one side of the room, and in the back there was a heap of electronic bits and pieces, like someone had just thrown any parts they hadn't any use for into one big pile. Maybe this was simply all that was left now after the base had been evacuated or abandoned. 

He stepped closer and looked at it. Dust was gathering on the shelves and all the discarded junk before it. But as he walked closer he noticed some shiny metal pieces peaking out of the pile. Behind him the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were discussing something and he couldn't hear any sound coming from the other two teams exploring the compound. Nobody was paying attention to him, as he crouched down to inspect the pieces before him. Something wasn't right here. He carefully set some pieces aside until he uncovered what looked like the torso of a human shaped robot built to scale. The metal hadn't gathered dust and the dirt and dust on some of the other pieces had been disturbed too. Somebody had been here.

But the robot was disassembled, inactive.

If the genius creator of fighting robots Hawkeye had been talking about had been the one to enter the base before them, why would he hide robot parts from view instead of booby-trapping the place? Was someone else here and watching them?

He stood again. The older S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist was nodding excitedly at the woman, and left accompanied by another agent. Steve's hand twitched and he balled it into a fist to keep himself from voicing his suspicions here and now. Silently he stepped around the other side of the pile of metal scraps and robot parts. He stopped in front of the rectangular metal platform. 

No dust there either. And as he took a better look at the floor he realized there were scratches on the floor that looked very recent. 

“Is something wrong, Captain?” Desmond asked.

“Not sure,” he said. 

The woman looked up from her work and stared at him with interest. 

“Do you know what this is for?” he asked her.

She looked from him to Desmond and back, nervously. “The platform?”

“Yes, the platform.”

“Why?” Desmond frowned.

“I think it was moved here recently.”

Desmond blanched and he turned back to the scientist. “What is it?” he asked, strained. He'd probably realized immediately what this could mean, that maybe they weren't the only ones exploring the base.

Steve hadn't yet found any signs to actually conclusively confirm this, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on.

“I don't know,” the woman stuttered. “I haven't even had time to look at it yet, sir.”

She was talking to Desmond's back as he was walking over to where Steve was standing. Steve watched him as he bent down to inspect scratches on the floor and then stood up to take a good look at the platform. “Do you think someone was trying to hide something here?” He nodded at the metal construction.

“In the wall? The floor?” Steve asked back and frowned, thinking about the possibilities. “What's on the other side of this wall? Do we have a blueprint?”

“No blueprints. But I didn't see any doors on that side of the corridor. Could it be a hidden door?”

Steve considered how much effort it would take to move the whole thing just on a hunch. He hopped up the stairs to take a better look at where the platform faced the wall. There was nothing there. He considered the stone wall for a moment, trying to make up his mind about what to do next.

“We need to know what they needed this for,” he said. Obviously this wasn't part of the security measures. He looked up to the ceiling trying to figure out how this thing related to the rest of the room.

A sudden humming sound started up. Steve tried to move, but felt dizzy.

“Gates!” Agent Desmond shouted. “What is this?”

“I don't know! I can't stop it!”

His body wasn't responding, the world was slowing down and he was seeing things as if in trance, as if everything was happening in slow motion. His ears were ringing.

“Steve!” someone shouted. Clint. Where had he come from?

He couldn't see him. All he could see was agent Desmond turning around to look at him with a sinister smile. 

The ringing in his ears got louder, painful. Then the world fell away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is about to leave New York and bury himself in work, because that's better than missing Steve. But then Reed calls and that always means trouble...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read and comment on livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/184654.html).

Tony woke up alone in his spacious bed in the Avengers Tower penthouse. It took him a moment to come fully awake, and he shifted around, realizing that nobody was in bed with him. He reached out to touch the place where Steve had been lying when he'd fallen asleep. The sheets were cold already.

He sat up, feeling unhappy and like meeting the world today would be a bad idea. But curling back up and pining would only make him feel more lonely. He stroked a hand through his hair, tousling it even more in the process, and got out of bed in one fluid motion. Better to get busy. Pondering wasn't a good start into the day.

So he dragged himself into the bathroom and took a long shower to make himself fully wake up.

By the time he arrived in their small open kitchen, with wet hair and wearing nothing but black boxer shorts, he could smell coffee. The timed coffee maker had been set for him. A little note stuck to the smooth metal surface. He took it and smiled at the accurate handwriting reading: “Sorry, something came up. Could take a while. Coffee is not a substitute for breakfast. Love, Steve.”

Sweet and annoying, just like Steve. He rolled his eyes and then sighed, before pouring himself a cup of coffee and sitting down at the counter, musing about what could have happened to call Steve away while Tony, who was typically a light sleeper, had slept on, exhausted from another day of tireless avenging. If someone asked, he'd claim post-coital bliss, of course, just to watch Steve's reaction.

Whatever had called him away, Tony was sure it was one of the things he wasn't supposed to know about, one of those things only Steve's very secret Avengers team would be informed of. It shouldn't feel so weird to know that Steve was keeping secrets. In truth he was glad that he didn't have a reason to keep those secrets himself. He didn't envy Steve, who was the top cop of all the world now, because that was simply too much pressure for most people.

He didn't remember what it had been like to be director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he couldn't imagine for a moment that he'd enjoyed it. And he only had to look at the footage, his too pale features in interviews, his PR smile that never reached his eyes, never warmed his expression, the circles under his eyes. He only had to look at Pepper's reaction whenever it was brought up, or at the way Maria Hill frowned whenever she mentioned it.

No, he really didn't envy Steve. Just month ago he'd apparently been working himself into the ground trying to do the right thing with S.H.I.E.L.D. and had messed up terribly. Even without his first hand memories he had no illusion about what the job had done to him, what he'd allowed it to do to him, but at least he _knew_ with unshakable certainty that even the fuck-up asshole Director Stark had been completely and undeniably himself. Steve was doing a much better job of it without question, would be much better suited for handling things on a big scale, he was sure of it, _knew_ it, but it was still hard to watch him turn a little more into Nick Fury with every passing day.

Steve had always been Steve, frustratingly stubborn, holding on to who and what he was, through all the changes he'd been through, even still himself when he was going through one of his moments of doubt. It had always been something Tony admired, _loved_ about him.

Tony didn't want Steve to lose that. He didn't want Steve to change even when they weren't seeing eye to eye, when they were arguing, when he wanted Steve to just once give in and see things his way. He didn't want Steve to change just for him.

His eyes fell back on the little note Steve had left him, smiled at the thought, of the knowledge of Tony's habits that spoke from the gesture even more than the words. 

When he thought about exactly _what_ this meant his heart jumped in his chest, making him dizzy and sick with both happy disbelief and _worry_. They were getting along, much better than just getting along, things were looking good, things were working out, but this was all still new and uncertain; this _thing_ between them that he didn't want to name yet.

Just weeks ago things had still been so strained between them and Tony tried to ignore his own common sense telling him that this wasn't going to last. Not with Steve under so much pressure, not with himself just as unable to simply change and stop being who he was. Some wounds were simply too fresh to not be ripped open again the moment something went wrong between them.

And it was his own uncertainties that made it so hard sometimes to deal with other people's reactions. He sighed and put down the empty coffee cup. He was prone to overthink these things. Nothing bad had happened yet.

This hadn't been how he wanted to spend his morning. In fact he had only put off returning to Seattle and Resilient to spend a little more precious time with Steve. But now he could probably forget all about that and instead be back at Resilient before Pepper even sent over the specs he had asked her for. Resilient should be his first priority outside of the Avengers. And Pepper would be really happy with him for once if he turned up back in Seattle early. But she would ask about Steve.

Maybe he should go down to the Avengers' kitchen and see who was around. But then there would also be friendly teasing and questions. And just this morning he wasn't up for that.

He tapped his hand against the table nervously. His eyes fell on his phone.

Anything was better than sitting here alone and thinking too much.

He was _absolutely_ not going to call Steve when he was on a mission. Texting wasn't an option either. 

Maybe it was time to go down to the workshop and bury himself in a project, put his hands inside the guts of a machine and get dirty. That usually helped to get himself to focus on something that wasn't Steve.

“Okay, Stark. Come on. You're not going to sit here and spend your morning _pining_ ,” he said out loud. He pulled himself up and walked towards the floor to ceiling windows and the door to the terrasse and pool outside, sure what he wanted to do today. He didn't bother getting dressed. It took a simple thought to access the armor and call up the suit, letting the nano-tech form the metal around him. 

He launched himself into the air, letting the door fall closed behind him. Pondering whether he should leave a message for Steve, he hovered right above the Tower for a moment. But Commander Rogers would know where to find Iron Man when he needed him and if his message was any indication he had his hands full at the moment anyway. This was just the way their messed up lives worked. Hovering a moment longer, taking in New York at this hour without any crisis looming, contemplating Stark Tower as it was now, he allowed himself to smile. At least their home was looking good again. The HUD showed him people down in the street pointing up at him, probably wondering if something was going on.

When a kid pulled a Stark phone from her pocket to zoom in to take a pic or to just take a better look, he waved and saluted, before starting up the repulsors and sped away. 

Red letters flashing before his eyes and a loud beep informed him of an incoming message, before he'd gone far. “Reed?” he asked, the armor opening his connection without prompting.

“Tony? You still in New York?”

“I was about to leave, but I'm still over New York, yes.”

“Good,” Reed said and sounded actually relieved. 

“Something bad going on?” Tony asked, mentally berating himself for not seeing the next crisis coming. Without even asking he rerouted the armor to go to the Baxter building instead.

“Not exactly. I was running some routine checks, took some readings with the dimensional detector we built.” He hesitated. “I'd just like a second pair of eyes. Can I send you the data?” 

“It sounds serious, Reed. What am I looking for?” 

“Sending it to the armor now,” he said. “I was checking for residue of dimensional portals. I think I've found something else. Someone is trying to contact us. Or trying to come through.”

The data was coming in and streamed on a little window on the right side of the HUD, the armor processing it and feeding him the relevant information. With what he had he could be sure that Reed wasn't wrong about this. _Something_ was there reaching out. “Good or bad?” he asked, because that was always what it came down to in the end.

“No idea. I detect some Von Doom radiation, but the levels are all wrong. Might be the universe. Might be a problem. Might be a temporal component. Whoever is coming might have planned for this. But something is off. I think that whoever is coming though might not be doing so voluntarily.”

“Not voluntarily?” He frowned, took a moment to call back up some of the data to review it more closely. “What are you saying?”

“The portal might rip them apart.”

“But they're already there,” Tony said. “I can see it, but...”

“Pocket dimension. I'm stabilizing the portal.”

“Reed!” he said, trying to think this through. Obviously Reed had already been doing this when he called him up. “We don't know who or what is coming!”

“I'm aware of that, Tony.”

“We need to tell Steve,” he blurted out, surprised that that was the first thing slipping out of his mouth in a situation like this, and then he realized “the situation” was already happening. No time to call back-up, no time to discuss this with Steve or S.H.I.E.L.D. first. “Located the most likely point for it to open,” he said into the comm. “It's happening right now.”

“I have it located, too,” Reed said, sounding intensely interested now. “On my way.”

Tony had already changed his own course again. “Way ahead of you. Meet you there. Be ready to call for backup,” he warned and made sure the Avengers emergency line would be just a command away just to be on the safe side in case he should need it. 

He could see it now. A dark alley in Brooklyn. How convenient. 

At least he would have walls around him to contain a fight, if whoever came through went right into attack mode. But if he'd had a choice in the matter he would have preferred a place outside of the city. He touched down, just as red readings were popping up in front of his eyes and Reed's voice announced: “I'll be there in a moment. Portal opening now.” 

“Thanks, Reed. I'm looking at it.”

Radiation levels spiked and even on the virtually projected view of the alley something glitched as if part of the area was collapsing in on itself, growing faint, then the view of something - depth, intense whiteness and _nothing_ \- stared back at him. The next moment a figure stumbled out and towards him: a man pressing his hands over his ears and crouching in on himself. He touched down in front of him, the armor making a loud clanking noise one the pavement, watched as the man stumbled again, falling to his knees and gasping, disoriented and breathing hard.

His heart stopped in his chest.

He'd know that figure anywhere in the world, knew that this couldn't be, wasn't right. “Steve?” he asked, shocked, not able to keep it in, an unpleasant spike of worry and confusion going through him. What happened, how did Steve end up trapped in a pocket dimension? Was he hurt? Was he even really _Steve_?

The head snapped up, blue eyes staring at him, confused. “Stark?” he asked as if he couldn't believe it, but wanted to.

Stark. Not Tony. Something wasn't right. His first suspicion was that this was a Skrull, and he seethed with anger, immediately scanned for anything out of the ordinary.

Only then did he notice all the subtle differences: younger face, lighter eyes, his frown as he took in his armor as if he hadn't seen this particular one before, the fact that he was wearing something that looked much like the Commander's current uniform but slightly changed and was carrying the shield that Barnes was carrying now. This wasn't Steve. Not his Steve.

Not the Steve who'd kissed him, open mouthed and demanding, just last night when he'd insisted it was time for Tony to move from the lab up to his own level and the bed big enough for both of them; not the Steve who'd left him without a word sometime this morning while he'd been sleeping, but left him coffee and a message.

A Skrull would have done a better job of it, would resemble Steve completely, would even have his memories.

His second thought was time travel, but the uniform was all wrong for that.

The fear subsided, but the worry remained. He made a step back, trying to stay calm. God, he hated trans-dimensional stuff like this. Why the hell did Reed have to call him for these things? Hadn't anyone else been around? Pym? McCoy? 

“Stark?” the man croaked again, trying to get his feet back under himself. He looked pale and much too shaky for Captain America, but if Tony was reading this right he'd been trapped in a pocket dimension for a few minutes, maybe even longer, and had a right to be shaken.

“Yes,” he said and took a deep breath. Damn, this was awkward, looking at your lover and knowing that it was all wrong, not the same person at all. And obviously this Steve had no idea what had just happened to him. He reached up to remove his helmet, unlatching it slowly and pulling it off, then holding it awkwardly under one arm, waiting for Steve to look at him; _really_ look at him.

But the man in question was still a little disoriented, leaving Tony to wonder how long he'd been trapped in a pocket dimension, how much of it he even remembered. He was bent over, breathing heavily, hands on his thighs, and taking a moment to compose himself. “This New York? How did I get here? What the hell just happened? How did you even know?”

“What's the last thing you remember, Steve?” Tony asked, trying to find a good way to break the news to him gently.

“Eastern Europe,” he said and looked up, questioningly. “God, I'm so glad to see... you.” His eyes remained glued to Tony's face and he froze.

 _Breaking it not so gently then_ , Tony thought with a frown, trying to project calm. “You're a long way from home, Cap,” he said and tried to smile reassuringly. “But it could be worse. At least this is New York and you're with friends.” At least he hoped that was the case. He wasn't keen on meeting a young Steve who was friends with some Tony out there, from a world where maybe both of them were supervillains. It didn't seem likely with the way this man behaved, but with the way these things worked, who could say for sure? Steve was all about honesty and truth, but he was also completely capable of playing his part as a professional agent, as the world's new Nick Fury. If there was something Tony knew for sure it was that you'd better not underestimate Steven Rogers, no matter the universe.

Steve blinked and then blurted out: “Your eyes are blue! Who are you? What is this?!” 

Tony took another deep breath, trying not to show his surprise. He hadn't expected that particular complaint, but filed away the information for later. “I'm Tony Stark. Not your Tony Stark, obviously. _A_ Tony Stark.” He took another step back, as he heard the Fantasticar arrive outside the alley. 

“Tony?” Reed called.

“Here, Reed,” he called back, not taking his eyes away from their visitor.

“Everything okay?” Reed asked, stretching to look around the corner and taking in the scene at one glance. He'd expected something like this, of course, the bastard, so he took the appearance of a young Steve Rogers from another universe without a hint of surprise.

Steve, who on the other hand looked spooked and like he had trouble keeping upright, stumbled backwards, his eyes going wide in surprise. “What the hell are you?”

Tony frowned, looked at Reed for a long moment, nodding to indicate that there was no imminent threat. You never knew with other dimensional versions of anyone, but this Steve seemed to be here by accident only and so far did not seem like some kind of evil twin. He turned back to watch him carefully, evaluating and making sure he wasn't just inclined to trust him because he was – well, Steve. It wasn't like Steve couldn't be lethal and dangerous in any world, especially holding that shield. Even under these weird circumstances he'd rather not have another fight with Captain America on his hands. 

But Steve wasn't taking his eyes away from Reed, staring hard, holding his shield up as if he expected an attack, face taking on the learned calm of a soldier before battle. 

“That is Reed Richards,” Tony explained, deciding that the Steve he knew would prefer not to be coddled and instead presented with all the facts. “Does that ring a bell?” Steve's eyes snapped back to him, assessing him again, probably trying to figure out if _Tony_ was the threat here now. “Fantastic Four?” he asked. “Mr. Fantastic? No? Nothing?”

Finally Reed stepped fully around the corner, watching Steve and then Tony briefly. “That could be important. Everything we know about the place you came from could be important to help you find your way back.” 

Steve watched him warily from behind his shield, which looked adorable, but Tony knew it also meant he was ready to strike. Reed reached back to the car, his arm getting longer and longer to get a small device that Tony recognized as a scanner for trans-dimensional energy signatures. The motion startled Steve again and he nearly bumped into the wall as he tried to step back even more. “Is this Hydra technology?” his eyes wandered to Reed than back to Tony. “I was in a Hydra lab just now. Now I'm here. And you are... not you.”

“Easy,” Tony said. _Just like selling a product,_ he told himself. _You just need to make yourself believe it and he'll believe you. No big deal. Nothing to worry about here. Just another Steve. Think about the day he woke up from the ice. Different time. Different world. Same thing. No problem at all. Right. At least this one knows you're not just a suit of armor, so if you're lucky he won't try to split your head open._ He stepped towards Steve and reached out, holding out his hand in a placating gesture, when the shield wasn't lowered in answer. “This must be really confusing for you. You must have been caught in a trans-dimensional shift or portal of some kind. Reed there detected some weird energy readings and tried to pull you through in one piece. That's why we're here. We're not your enemies. We're here to help.”

“God,” Steve said with a frown. “Now I know you're not Tony Stark. I think I understood what you just said.”

Tony smiled at the wry humor. “I have some practice talking non-scientist. To you. And other people. And I _am_ Tony Stark, Steve. Just not the one you know.”

“Okay.” He didn't lower his shield even an inch. Tony knew he would strike out if he startled him now, reminded again of that fateful first meeting with Captain America.

It was obvious that he needed to say or do something that would put him at ease at least a little. He just had no idea of what to say. “Look,” he said. “I'm not the most trusting person, probably in whatever universe, so I know where you're coming from. But if we want to figure out what happened to you, we'll have to come to some sort of understanding. We're not a threat. We're here to help. You're Cap. You've had to be adaptable before. It's not the first time that you end up in a world you don't know.”

The blue eyes widened slightly, before narrowing again. “You could say that.” 

Tony nodded, trying to indicate that he understood.

“It's not even my first brush with a portal,” Steve suddenly said and laughed, short and barking, not a happy sound. “It's just my first time going through. That's more your job, actually. Was it a portal? It didn't look like one. How do I know?”

“The life of an Avenger, huh? Never stops throwing the weird stuff at you.” 

Something eased in Steve' shoulders and he nodded once. Then he took a deep breath and finally lowered the shield. “Okay, let's say I believe you.” he said, more to himself than aimed at them, ready to accept what had happened and move forward again, just like the Steve he knew. Steve's eyes settled on Reed Richards this time. “I don't know you. Are you...?”

Tony looked over his shoulder at Reed, who was already taking readings in the alley, leaving the talking and drama to Tony. “He's a friend,” Tony supplied. “And a scientist.”

“And he... can...” Steve swallowed and gestured in his direction.

“Stretch,” Reed said, meeting Steve's eyes for the first time, and smiled slightly.

“He's smart too,” Tony added.

Steve's eyes snapped back to him as if he was suspicious again, trying to figure something out. Tony just waited for Steve to put together all the pieces that were confusing him. “Smarter than you or Banner?” he asked.

He filed away the mention of Banner for later. “Smart,” Tony said and gave Reed a crooked smile, knowing that Reed wouldn't even roll his eyes at the joke. It probably did things to you and your ego, if you spent a good deal of your life with Doctor Doom after you, just to prove you weren't the smarter one.

“Fair enough,” Steve said and nodded, a determined look on his face now. “Why not? If we have a Hulk then why shouldn't there be someone who can... stretch.”

Tony smirked. Yes, at some point they all just started to take things at face value. You could accept anything after a while. Anything but magic in his case. Magic was just rubbish.

“My ears are still ringing,” Steve said, as if it was something that only now occurred to him. “And I think... I hope the people I was with back there aren't in trouble now.” A worried frown accompanied his next words. “I need to go back. Find out how this happened. We were in an abandoned Hydra lab.”

“We'll figure it out, Cap,” Tony told him, trying to be reassuring. “They are already looking for you from the other side, too. I'm sure of it.”

“Can they even do that?” Steve asked faintly.

“Are you feeling well, Captain?” Reed asked then. “You were trapped for quite some time. We should probably scan you, get all the data we need, before you're here too long to give us clean readings.”

“ _Are_ you alright, Steve? You look a little pale.” Tony knew it was stupid to suddenly feel a pang of worry grip his insides. He couldn't lose Steve, not _his_ Steve. His Steve was somewhere dealing with his own mission and would return to him safe and sound; he was sure of it. But that didn't mean he wanted to see _any_ Steve suffer – again. The pictures of newscasts and S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance videos of Steve's lifeless body on courthouse steps still haunted him, even if his own memory of it happening was gone. 

“We should probably take this out of the alley,” Reed said. 

“Have all you need?” Tony asked, making sure.

Reed nodded. “Not sure how much I'll get out of the readings. I'll need my equipment for the rest. And it would be good if you could tell us what exactly happened to you, Steve. There's nothing coming through after you that we should know about, is there?”

“Not that I know of.” Steve looked like he was still not exactly sure what to make of all this, but had a bad feeling about it; his face remained mostly neutral, but that was something his own Steve was good at, too. Tony looked away. It was simply too strange to look at Steve carrying the shield and looking much too young and like he'd again lost his place in the world. It made him anxious and want to reach out to him. It also made him yearn for the past when things had been so much simpler – or at the very least a different kind of complicated - between them... and he was a futurist, damn it. He looked to the future. Not the past.

Tony walked beside Steve to the car, watched as Reed and Steve, who still looked a little uneasy, got in. “This thing flies?”

“Why are you surprised? This thing flies, too.” He gestured to himself in the armor and smiled. Weren't flying Ferraris standard issue for S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore where this man came from?

“Point taken,” Steve said and watched him expectantly, maybe waiting for him to launch himself into the air. He was obviously observing and catching up, maybe comparing this armor design to the ones he knew. “This place is really weird,” he muttered, with a sideways look at the car controls. “I'm still half convinced that I'm lying in an abandoned Hydra lab in the Carpathians, knocked out, and this is all just another weird dream. Maybe I'm still in the ice and none of this ever happened.”

“Sorry,” Tony said. “I fear we're quite real.” Then he put his helmet back on and with the modulated voice of the suit asked the question he wanted to ask the most: “It's not been that long since waking up to the present? That's still fresh for you?”

“Not long, no. But I'm coping.”

Tony had no doubt about that. “But you're not surprised that I'm Iron Man?”

“No. You're Iron Man. Everybody knows that.”

He surprised himself by laughing. Apparently his other self had been in a rush then. Good for him – or not, depending on what that world was about to throw at him for it.

Steve cleared his throat. “So, I'm around?” He leaned back in the seat as Reed got the car off the ground; just a casual little question, but Tony could see the muscles moving in his jaw as he swallowed.

“Yes. You can meet later.” And wouldn't that be interesting? And a delightful sight, too. He should totally put that on video.

He lifted off just as the car did, and held their pace. New York was still showing itself from its best side and Tony let himself fall back a little to watch the streets, aware that Reed and the Steve from another universe were talking, that maybe he should try to get closer and follow the conversation, but it was only a short flight to the Baxter Building and he needed to get his own confused emotions in order.

There was a Steve out there that he should call right now, because this was something Commander Rogers needed to know about. There was a Steve out there who just recently had come back to trusting him and who Tony could admit he needed more than anything.

But there was a Steve right here who needed him, too. A Steve he hadn't failed yet. Just for the moment that seemed more important; that maybe he could even help this one get back home quickly and cleanly and without any more trouble arising from it; that maybe for once he could do right by Steve, even if it wasn't the one he was in a relationship with, trying to built a future with.

The car touched down and Tony remained hovering above them in the air, asking himself where exactly his Steve was now and when he'd be back. Reed and Steve got out of the car and their visitor looked around interestedly, but not stopping whatever he had been saying. 

Tony touched down beside them, as Steve said: “I stepped up to get a better look at the whole construction and the next thing I know there is this sound – and I get dizzy, can't move. I can hear Hawkeye calling my name and then everything just... I'm not sure how to explain it? Everything just went out of focus. When I could move again the sound was deafening and I stumbled into him.” He nodded at Tony. “In an alley in New York in a different world.”

“That sounds a bit like time travel,” Tony said with a frown and looked at Reed, before shutting down the armor, letting it sink back into his bones, keeping some of the nanotech bits about him to from a shirt and suit pants. Steve stared at him open mouthed. “Oh, sorry. Advanced armor,” he said and brushed a hand through his hair in an attempt to make it look less messy. “Should have warned you.”

“That was scary,” Steve blurted out. “Where did it go?”

“Hard to explain,” he said, not keen on making life either more difficult or more interesting for the other Tony by giving Steve too much information about possible armor designs. Extremis was still something Steve and he avoided talking about at the best of times.

Things weren't getting any easier when this Steve looked at him hard, studying his face as if he was looking for answers there. It was easy to see that whatever universe, Steve wouldn't be sidetracked easily. And it seemed he'd had a head-start in meeting both Iron Man and Tony Stark as one person. 

Reed was leading the way, his lab lighting up the moment they stepped inside. He directed Steve towards the middle of the room. “Let me take a full body scan first. We'll check you over after,” he said, anxious to check for any signs of radiation that could give them the data say needed to not only figure out how the man had ended up here, but also where exactly he had come from. 

Steve looked uneasy, so Tony walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don't worry, Steve. You don't know Reed, but I do. He's an expert on dimensional stuff like this. You can trust him to figure this out. We'll get you home as fast as possible.”

“How fast will that be?” he asked, and there was a mix of emotions flitting across his face before Tony had time to really identify it. 

“A few days maybe. Depends on how exactly you got here.”

He nodded, a determined look on his face as he stepped into place. Tony squeezed his shoulder again reassuringly, and remained aware of Steve's eyes following him as he stepped toward Reed who was sitting in front of his computer screens already. “I'm ready, Captain,” he said.

As Tony came to stand beside him, he peered up at him briefly.“Shouldn't we call Commander Rogers?” he asked Tony casually. They both knew that there was no real question about it. This was exactly the kind of thing Steve should be made aware of these days, being the world's top cop and all.

“We probably should, yes. I'm just not sure if we should do it right now. He's on mission. I should call in S.H.I.E.L.D. or Maria Hill at least.” He observed Steve who was standing inside the scanner, stony faced and determined. “I think we should talk to him first. He seems rattled.”

“Does he now?” Reed asked, but he was watching the screen and not Tony, so it was hard to read his expression.

Surely he wasn't implying that Tony was the one rattled by this? Reed knew about him and Steve, of course. Although they were keeping things quiet, there was scarcely a secret you could keep for long in the superhero community – and the Avengers knew of course. It was strange to be faced with a Steve he didn't know, yes, he could admit that. But that was entirely the problem, wasn't it? Both Steves were different, but seemed similar enough that Tony actually felt he could read this one, better maybe than this younger Steve even realized; similar enough for Tony to find it utterly impossible to look at him an not feel some of the emotions he felt for the Steve he'd known for so many years.

Oh boy. No, he wasn't rattled, but maybe he was just a little bit in trouble here.

Steve was trying to catch his eye, made eye contact, and he smiled automatically, trying to be reassuring. Certainly _not_ flirting. He pulled himself away immediately and turned back to the problem at hand, back to Reed, who was still not paying no attention to anything but his data streams, and he felt silly for thinking that he'd even been trying to imply anything. Until Reed said: “It's strange to see someone you know, but it's not really them, isn't it?”

He swallowed, his throat suddenly much drier than before. “It's strange, yes.”

Reed, still not looking at him, nodded. He knew Reed had looked at many universes out there, at all the possibilities, had probably seen different outcomes for him and his team, for him and his family, had probably seen some universes where his family had fallen apart, where they'd never found each other even, where none of them existed. He really didn't want to know what that felt like. Knowing that somewhere all the possibilities had been realized, somewhere all had turned out in the worst possible way.

So Tony had never really asked about the details, even when Reed had talked about how often he and Tony had discussed how the registration issue had turned out in other places, for other Avengers, while they'd been planning how to tackle what was coming. Some universes had managed to get by without heroes fighting amongst themselves, some had seen the laws and fallout get even worse. And Reed had looked at all of them, trying to find a way out for their own world. That much Tony knew, even if he had never asked for more information ever since his brain had been reset. 

His focus was drawn back to the data and calculations popping up on several screens, as Reed typed in commands to start his own calculations and some more to imitate a full body scan of their guest.

“So, Reed, I missed your little talk there. He genuine?”

“Shouldn't you be able to tell?”

“I think he is, but I wanted a second opinion. No fun being played.”

“He's 100% human. I checked that first. The genetics match up, but he's younger. No sign of cloning. He is confused enough about what happened to him that his story of this being an accident might be true, and there are so many details to his back story that it seems unlikely that it's made up.”

“Blue eyes?”

“Hmm?”

“He was startled that I had blue eyes.”

Reed's expression turned thoughtful. “Interesting. So the other Tony had different eye color.”

“Seems like it.”

“And that is what made you believe his story?”

Tony shrugged. “The reaction seemed honest.” And he knew Steve, knew him too well maybe, and that was why he needed Reed to be the one with the level head here. He needed someone else to tell him that this was real, because he couldn't look at the man and see anything but Steve.

“He told me he stepped on some sort of platform and something triggered the connecting apparatus,” Reed explained, he sounded like he was already piecing together the puzzle.

“Triggered?” Tony asked and looked over his shoulder to where the scanners were doing their work.

Steve was watching them calmly now, his eyes focused mostly on Tony, who was beginning to feel uncomfortable about it. They really needed to resolve this as quickly as possible, for both their sakes. Or for all four of them, who knew? He knew with certainty that if he'd lose his own universe's Steve in a portal accident, he'd be freaking out and shutting himself up in a lap until the problem was solved and Steve was back.

“Sorry,” the man suddenly said. “It's just, you look like the Tony Stark I know and sometimes you even move and sound like him and then the small differences just become even more jarring somehow. You look at me and your eyes are all wrong, or you don't make a jibe when I'm sure I should expect one. You're slightly taller. It's weird.” 

That made perfect sense to him, as it was exactly how he was feeling about comparing this one to the Steve he knew. “I have no problem with being stared at,” he said and gave his best PR smile. “It's kind of an occupational hazard.”

“I see,” Steve said flatly. Then he looked him over again, this time squinting his eyes. “You're younger.”

He was glad that his poker face was good enough at all times to keep himself from gaping. “ _I_ am younger?” That certainly came as a surprise. “Have you looked at yourself?”

Steve's eyes widened a bit, too. “Yes, younger than the Stark I... _I_ am younger to you? How old _am_ I?”

That honest reaction pulled Tony out of his own surprise at the news and he smirked. “Well, you _look_ my age I suppose, old man. What's a few decades give or take, huh, if you're still looking good?” 

But Steve had caught on to something else. “We're close in age? I mean, in theory? Without the years I spent...”

“On ice?”

He huffed. “ _Okay,_ you _are_ Tony Stark. Forget what I said before.”

He couldn't help it: he laughed. He couldn't say he was surprised that Steve had just implied that “all” Tonys were their own brand of annoying. It wasn't a new accusation between them, between him and his Steve. In his own estimation dealing with Steve could be equally as frustrating, especially when he decided to be stubborn, so he could live with the accusation just fine.

As if he wanted to prove him right, Steve, stubborn as ever, looked at him sternly, not allowing himself to be sidetracked. “I was just wondering,” he said, seriously.

Tony couldn't resist. He never could. So he gave Steve the earnest answer he was looking for. “You are around the age Steve was when we pulled him from the ice. That was quite a few years ago,” he explained, understanding the need to know that much. “When we were both young men.”

“You're still young. And you are Iron Man? How long...?”

“It's been a while,” he said and sighed, not sure he really wanted to go for a trip down memory lane; not when there was a man standing there already making him think about the past more than he was comfortable with. Things were good in the here and now, weren't they? There was no need to dwell on the simplicity of their early days. “So, you stepped onto a platform... in a Hydra lab?”he asked instead to get them back on track.

He nodded. “Of course, it was abandoned. But we had reason to suspect that someone had been in to salvage stuff. The platform looked new.”

“Why would Hydra leave anything behind to be salvaged in the first place? That is not how they usually operate, is it?”

“ _Operate_? You mean as in _still_ work?”

Tony's eyes widened. Oh. It hadn't even occurred to him that this might be an option. A world without Hydra? How likely was that? He made a throw away hand gesture, they needed to focus on what was important now. There was time for details later. Maybe if this was easily fixed there wasn't even a need for it. “Was it Hydra tech?”

“The platform?”

He nodded. 

“I wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't high and standing against a wall, rectangular. But there was nothing that would have made me think that it was tech. I thought it had been moved there to hide something, something in the wall or floor.”

“Then what happened?”

“I don't know. Something like a humming noise started. I couldn't move. I think I looked up and the agents were staring at me. Clint was calling my name somewhere. But I couldn't move, didn't see him, and the ringing noise got louder and louder and then you.”

Tony threw a glance down at Reed who looked at him with a an equally grave expression and then pointed at one of the screens. So he bent down to get a better look at the readings. “The readings are a little off, but it is Doom radiation, isn't it?”

Reed nodded. “Time Platform,” he concluded, leaning back in his chair to stare at the numbers. “It's clinging to him. No way to miss the radiation signature.”

“What are you talking about?” Steve called, now looking slightly annoyed and uncomfortable. 

“You can step out of the scanner now, Steve,” Reed said. “But I fear that we won't have a quick fix to your predicament.”

Steve didn't need to be told twice and moved over to them immediately, coming to stand beside Tony, giving his shoulders a curious look for a second and frowning again, quizzically, before turning his attention to Reed. “Explain,” he said, shoulders tense again.

Reed looked at him, as if he thought it was best that this would come from Tony. He wasn't sure he agreed with the assessment. This wasn't his Steve, and very obviously he and the Tony Stark from his own world weren't even all that close. And wasn't Reed the expert here? But Steve was watching him expectantly too, so he tried to find the shortest possible explanation.

“If this had been a dimensional portal, it would have been possible to follow your traces and with the additional information you could provide us with we would have had a good groundwork to figure out where to send you back to. Now there's an additional hurdle. You might not have come here in a straight line, but moving in two directions at once, so to speak.”

Steve took that in, focused on both of them again after a moment of thought and said; “So what exactly was it?”

It was hard to figure out what to say or ask here, hard to understand what this Steve knew, or what had never happened to him at all. “Ever heard of someone called Doctor Doom?” he asked cautiously.

“Today, for the first time. Someone called Doom was suspected to be actively going after remaining Hydra tech.” Steve had found his enemy, his suspected intruder, even if he had never seen him face to face or had any idea what Victor von Doom was capable of. His whole expression and body language was giving it away. Steve was ready to find whoever had tried to get rid of him and fight back.

“He builds platforms similar to the one you described, uses them for time travel,” Tony said to give Steve the obvious connection.

“ _Time travel_?” Steve asked, with something that was just a little too startled to hide the underlying longing there. “What the hell is keeping me here then?” Tony felt a pang of regret, as if _he_ was in Steve's shoes right now. The unvoiced thought remained hanging in the air between them. _Why didn't I just go home then?_ A _home_ that for this one was still not entirely the present. 

“It's not that easy in general. The time continuum is a fragile thing. And I like to believe you have a home here. With _us_. Whatever world you're in, you're an Avenger – and this is where you belong.” He wasn't sure why, but adding the last bit was a matter of pride. He knew that Reed could probably cite hundreds of worlds where this wasn't true in some way or another, but for Tony this didn't matter, would never matter. This was were Steve belonged.

Steve stared at him, surprised, then looked away. “I'm sorry,” he muttered as if he had anything to be sorry for. Suddenly he looked crestfallen, the determination still there under the surface, but contained now. 

“Sit down,” Reed said, his neck getting longer and twisted around to allow him to look at them. “You've had a rough day. This is a lot to take in.”

Tony agreed and put a hand on Steve shoulder, steered him to a chair. Steve sat down without complaint, which was never an especially good sign with his Steve. But he tried not to jump to conclusions, tried again to remind himself that these were different persons, that he didn't really know this Steve at all.

“How long will this take?” Steve asked. “How fast can you get me back?”

“Let's make sure we know everything we need to do first,” Tony told him. “It's hard to tell without more calculations if you traveled sideways, or if you traveled sideways and back or forth. It's hard to tell if there was any temporal component at all.”

“But our ages are different?” Steve asked with a note of desperation. 

“That doesn't mean anything, Steve. Different universes. Things happen differently sometimes.”

He nodded. “Then do your calculations,” he said, determined again. “How can I help?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Steve is busy figuring out this new universe he's been thrown into, Tony learns a few things about their guest and some decisions have to be made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read and comment on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/190001.html).

It was both strange and familiar to be sitting on the floor, both hands buried inside of a machine, and have _a_ Steve sitting on a chair beside him, his arms resting on his knees, so he could comfortably lean forward to better see what Tony was doing. In their later years that had happened more and more often and now that they were trying to build something more between them it was one of their ways to spend time together when Tony was too busy – or unwilling – to stop working. 

But that was with another Steve.

_This_ Steve had slipped out of a part of his uniform that was now stiffly hanging over the back of the chair, which left him in a white muscle shirt, the blue pants and his red boots. Under different circumstances, with a different Cap, Tony might have found it deliciously distracting. Here and now it only made him marvel again at how much this Steve was like his Steve had been years ago. “So we can open a portal with this?” Steve asked and leaned a little closer to see better.

“Actually this is just a scanner of sorts. A way to find out where you came from. I'm upgrading it, to make it easier to locate your world. Hopefully make it easier, that is. We'll have to look for the right kind of traces, the right configurations. Reed will be working on it, too. He has mapped some universes, so maybe we'll even be able to find yours pretty fast. Together we'll work something out, that will allow us to open the right kind of portal next. Just a bit of advanced physics at works there.” Tony nodded to himself, not sure who out of the two of them needed convincing here. He'd “changed” into a tank top and jeans when Steve hadn't been looking by simply telling the fabric around him to reshape. Steve had simply stared at him with a frown when he'd seen him after and asked when he'd had the time to change. “I live fast,” he'd said with a smile. This Steve, it seemed, hadn't perfected the art of dealing with Tony Stark yet and had searched his face, trying to find a clue of how to take this. It was fun to wind him up, although he knew he was at an unfair advantage there.

His phone rang and he picked it up, remembering that there was an outside world he'd have to face again sooner or later. “Pepper?” he asked into the phone without looking. He had ring tones for all the important people in his life, because being who he was he avoided taking their calls just as often as he craved them. 

“Where are you? I don't see any disasters happening in the news, but you're not _here_ where you promised to be if nothing kept you from it. So I can only assume that something is going on – or, less likely but still at least possible, that Steve kept you for an extended breakfast and lunch and will give you back to your work when he's through with you. It's not the later is it?”

He sighed dramatically. “Don't rub it in. I haven't seen him all day.” Which was the truth, but felt like a weird kind of lie under the circumstances.

“Oh?” she asked and even sounded a little remorseful now. She knew that Tony was serious about this relationship, had _pined_ for Steve even before he'd known it, but that things remained complicated and at times rocky between them. “He off doing avenging without you?”

“Something like that.”

“Why aren't you here then?” This time the question sounded just the slightest bit uneasy. Things hadn't exactly been easy in Seattle either. Someone, and it wasn't just Stane and Hammer, had it in for him. Someone always did, of course, but they all were just beginning to see that it was more than that this time. Whatever was at the heart of it, and Tony had a lingering suspicion that he knew what it would be, was personal. “Should I come? Should I ask Rhodey?” Pepper asked.

He appreciated the thought, but even if he actually were in trouble, it was his job to take care of his people and not the other way around. While thinking about how to best lay her fears to rest, he reached for the screwdriver, surprised when Steve picked it up before he could get there and gave it to him, their fingers brushing against each other, for the shortest and most innocent of touches. Their eyes met and Tony could only pull away as if nothing had happened because he had Pepper to think about. “No, Pepper. Don't ask Rhodey. He's busy enough as it is. And it's not something on that scale. I'm here with Reed and nothing is going to explode into the next big crisis, I promise. There was a little... let's call it an inter-dimensional glitch. Nothing bad has happened. It's keeping us busy, but there won't be any world ending scenarios happening today.”

“You're sure about that?”

“Yes, very sure this time.”

She was silent for a short moment. “You're not lying just to keep us out of your hair?” 

He couldn't fault her for asking the obvious question. She had reason to. “I'm not lying. Everything is fine. Don't worry. I'll try to be there as soon as we did all we can do here for today, okay?”

“I'm your business partner, Tony. Being partners means that you should be here taking your load of work, you know?”

“I've put you in charge, Pep, because you are the one who can keep me in line. That was the whole deal.” He didn't bring up that in the long run he hoped for Resilient to become a business that wouldn't need him front and center all the time. He'd hand picked their staff for a reason. 

“I feel like I'm always drawing the shorter stick here.” Pepper complained.

He chuckled. “Don't be dramatic. You like it.”

“You better be here sometime soon, Mr. Stark. I know I won't get more, so it's good enough for now. If you're not here by tomorrow, I'll don my own suit, come over and kick your ass.”

“Duly noted. I'll be there later today.” 

“I mean it. Kicking of your lifetime.”

“I know that. That's exactly what I have you for, Pepper, don't I?”

She huffed. “Be here, Tony. Last warning. The Asgard thing was your idea and this car is your baby. I know our R&D team is the best out there, but you are still Tony Stark.”

With a sideways glance over at Steve he said: “Yeah, I'm Tony Stark. And don't I know it?” Steve was watching him intently, no real question in the gaze, but he was also not missing any detail. He smiled to distract both of them from how strange it made Tony feel. “And I'll be there soon, okay? Don't worry, Pepper.”

“How am I supposed to do that while working with you?” she shot back and hung up on him after a final warning to at least call when he wasn't going to make it - _or_ this thing that wasn't a crisis turned out to be one after all.

He put the phone aside, focused back on the work in front of him. The sound beside him told him that Steve stood up from the chair. When he put down the screwdriver to put it aside, Steve was beside him and took it from his hand to carefully place it back among the other tools. He sat down on the floor very close to Tony, looking relaxed and interested for the first time since he'd arrived. “I've never watched you, ehm, him, work. Natasha tells me there is usually more noise involved.”

“Noise?”

“She was reluctant to call it music,” he said and smiled brightly.

“Ah,” he said with an answering smile. “I see.” Apparently some things remained a universal constant. Although he didn't even remember when he'd last gotten into the right space for an intense workshop session with blaring music and uninterrupted hours of science and engineering. He was splitting up his time between New York an Seattle, between Steve and the Avengers and much of his work recently was done in their R&D department at Resilient with other people – or when he managed to catch a few hours before Steve came to fetch him from his workshop inside Avengers Tower.

“There was the time you and Bruce were bouncing science talk back and force on the Helicarrier, but I had a hard time following anything the two of you were saying then. And then all hell broke loose with Loki.”

“Ah, Loki. Classic villain, huh? Did he monologue? I bet he monologued.” He smiled. “So you do have a Thor, then?”

Steve gave him an answering smile. “Yes.” Apparently he was feeling more comfortable talking about the things that weren't different in their worlds.

But there was one thing that was different that Tony really wanted to know about. “How old am I in your world?”

He shrugged and looked him over carefully. “I'd say a decade or so older give or take.”

“Hmm.” It was so strange to think that somewhere out there he'd look like he was lusting after Captain America for his youthful looks. Although maybe that was only him, as obviously things between that Iron Man and Captain America were different. How would their friendship have developed here if they hadn't been the same age? Would Cap even have looked at Tony Stark as anything but a benefactor? Would they have been friends at all?

“How long have you been Iron Man? Really?” Steve asked, apparently comfortable to trade information.

“Since before we picked you from the ice.”

Steve squinted and Tony expected him to next ask how old he was exactly. But instead he was calculating. Tony had already told him that Steve had been around his age when they'd pulled him from the ice and that they were close in age. “So you've been Iron Man for a long time already? You were my age when you started? The age I'm now?”

With his Cap he would have made another jibe about the years Steve had lost, but now that he realized how raw that still was for this one, he just swallowed it down. “Yes,” he answered. “around the same age, more or less. Probably a bit younger.”

Steve made a soft sound, indicating that he had thought this might be the case. Tony was focused on connecting cables and didn't look at him. So he couldn't see whatever was showing on Steve's face when he asked: “So how is Pepper? Did I keep you from her?”

“Pepper? She's in Seattle. We're building up a new company and it, ehm, goes as well as could have been expected.” There was no telling what exactly another world's Tony Stark had gone through in his life, and no telling what a younger Steve Rogers would even know about it, but Tony really didn't want to go into details of why his last company had been broken up, or what had gone on before. “There is a lot of work to be done and I should really do my part. We're business partners and she's right when she says I shouldn't leave everything to her.”

“Oh,” Steve said. He was still sitting very close, following Tony's movements with his eyes. “Does she miss you when you're gone?”

“Miss me?” he asked startled. “I'm sure sometimes she does. Especially when I leave her to fend for herself at presentations and gala dinners. It's not like she needs me there though. She's always been the best man for this job, not me.”

“No, I mean... Oh.” Steve stopped talking and Tony looked up to find out what had surprised him, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, met his eyes with a frown and was about to ask, when Steve started talking again. “You and Ms. Potts, you're... you're not... together?”

That momentarily floored him and it took him at least thirty seconds to wrap his head around the question and come up with something to say. “Ugh, together? As in _together_? In a relationship?”

“Yes.” His face remained neutral, but Tony's reaction had obviously not been what he'd been expecting.

“Uhm, no. I... It's not like that was never on the table. We... _I_ kept having horrible timing and... there were other people in our lives and we came back to having horrible timing and she married a very good friend, and then... A lot went wrong there.” _I don't even remember the time when Steve was dead and Happy died and there was something between me and Pepper that nobody is giving me any details about._ There was a whole story right there in the way Peppers mouth pinched into a thin line whenever they were talking about the time before he'd deleted his brain; in the way Maria Hill narrowed her eyes at him every time he mentioned Pepper and Steve in the same sentence; in the way Pepper asked him about Steve in ways that told him that she thought this _had_ to work out for him and maybe even for herself, so they could all just finally get past whatever it was that had happened. It was awkward, but the best thing to do for all of them was to just push on and pretend that he hadn't picked up on any of the undercurrents; that he was just Tony Stark without a certain part of his memory and had no clue that anything had happened at all.

The universe displaced person who looked like his lover was still frowning, probably also trying to wrap his head around another detail that was different here.

But Tony was stuck on one little thing: _So older me isn't into younger Steve after all._ He wasn't sure if he should be glad or sad about it, but for some reason it left him with a horrible feeling of foreboding. Of course, there were worlds out there where Steve and Tony would not end up together, where maybe they wouldn't even meet, where one of them died before they ever met, where maybe they killed each other and didn't just come back from that to start over. He was pragmatic, tried to be realistic.

He knew all that. 

Why did hearing this hurt a little then?

Because this Steve was so much like his own Steve? Because he simply had to believe that any Tony would be better if he worked things out with Steve Rogers? 

He had to stop thinking like that. He really, really needed to just stop.

After all their relationships wasn't the solution to most of their conflicts. He knew that, too. No, being in love would never be an easy solution for them. Now that they were in a relationship they were trying to work things out – but that didn't mean they were any closer to agreeing on a lot of things than they had been before.

He _feared_ that most of all.

When he realized that his hands were terribly close to shaking he stopped working, clenched them into fists in his lap and tried to breath without giving away how much this was affecting him.

There was a world where he and Pepper were together, where their horrible timing had maybe been less horrible or things had simply happened differently. Where maybe Steve was too young or he came from the ice too late and Tony Stark had never fallen in love with him, but _had_ fallen in love and built a relationship. That was good. Hopefully it meant that Pepper was happy and keeping him in line perfectly. That was all good.

Somewhere out there things were just different and that didn't mean anything for him here.

Difference was never bad. It wasn't something to be feared.

_Be realistic, Tony,_ he chided himself. _This means nothing. You and Steve can work this out, make this work. It's not destiny, it's not fate. You've been in love with Steve for a long time, but that has never made things any easier and it was never sure you'd actually get him. You never even tried to make it work with him before, because you feared all the things that could have gone wrong. And you've been in love with other people. It's not so hard to imagine that you could have made it work with Pepper if you'd tried._ He had been so close to marrying Rumiko and sometimes he was still asking himself if that would have made all the difference for him, if that had been the one time when he'd been close to his happily ever after and lost it. 

Finally Steve – and he definitely needed to come up with a better way to designate him in his head pretty soon, because it was already hard enough to keep the two Steves apart in his head without him constantly comparing them – cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he said hoarsely. “I really need to stop making assumptions. Everything is so familiar, but so different.” He looked over at where Reed had stretched his arm across the room to type something without moving away from the scanner he was calibrating. “Sometimes extremely different.”

Tony nodded. There wasn't anything smart to add to that.

“Tony?” Reed called. “How far is our temporary Bridge?”

“Temporary is exactly what it will be. I'd need more time to build a better one.”

“I built a better one, you know?” Reed asked back casually, the way people were mentioning things from the time he didn't remember when they weren't sure how to exactly approach the topic.

“I know you built a Bridge during -,” he froze, decided not to upset Steve even more by just dropping information about the inter-hero conflict the SHRA had brought them to, and continued, “ _that_ crisis. You said it was gone.”

Reed nodded. “Susan wanted me to get rid of it. So I did.”

Which as an explanation left out most of the not so harmless details Tony could guess at. Susan had always been a sensible woman and although he wasn't exactly on the best of terms with her these days – no doubt rightfully so – he had to admit he understood where she was coming from. “I understand why she asked you to,” he said. He had pieced together some of what he must have been thinking during the time, what Reed must have been thinking, too, had already come to the conclusion that working so hard to analyze all the possibilities how this could be controlled had been essentially what led them down the path to escalation and had made them blind to the threat of the Skrull. He knew that at some point he had been warned about that, but the paranoia had made everything worse, playing into the Skrull's plans even more. Would they have found a solution for this if he and Reed hadn't already been convinced that there was only one way to go about this? Would things have been even worse in the end?

He got up from where he was sitting stretching his limbs a little, aware that Steve was watching him with that slight hint of scrutiny. He walked over to Reed to stand beside him, and said: “It's only going to be temporary. We'll locate this world and bring him back and disassemble it again.”

Reed nodded.

“Is it dangerous?” Tony hadn't noticed Steve getting up to follow him. “Are you taking any risks I should know about?”

“It's not dangerous,” Reed told him. “It's just a window into the myriad of worlds that are out there.”

“And some of what you see can be disconcerting,” Tony added, giving Steve a pointed look.

Of course, Steve could understand that. He was standing right in the middle of a disconcertingly different world, waiting for a way to get back home and find out if any of his friends were in danger. He seemed to mull it over for a moment before he nodded and said: “I understand. It's not always comfortable, I imagine, to _see_. Is it dangerous to see too much?”

Tony sucked in a deep breath.

Reed shook his head. “Not dangerous. But it can be confusing. What you see might influence you, impair your judgment. Of course, it can show you better ways to solve problems, too. It's a two-edged sword.”

“Knowledge always is. It's you who makes the choices about how to use your knowledge,” Steve said.

Tony watched him warily. He and Steve had never had this particular conversation, not about Reed mapping other universes, about the way the knowledge about them had influenced both Reed and him. He wasn't sure he ever _wanted_ to have this particular conversation. He'd deleted that part of his memory for a reason, he was sure of it. He knew himself – and he had known what he was doing and went and did it. 

“Of course,” Reed said, just for a short moment meeting Tony's eyes and then focusing back on Steve. “Would you help look through the universes I've already mapped. Maybe I have a designation for yours already. It will make finding it much easier.”

With a nod Steve stepped up to stand beside him. “What do you need from me?”

“Just some details,” Reed said. “How you ended up in the ice, when you were woken up. Who is around. What do you know about their lives. It might help us find a match.” He gave Tony a pointed look over Steve's head.

“This is not going to be quick, is it?” Tony asked him then. The answer had been creeping up on him slowly, with every minute they'd spent in the lab, hoping for Reed to just announce that he'd found an easy energy trail and that bringing back Steve back would simply be a matter of building a one way portal back to home. Of course, that hope had been futile. Life was never that easy where they were concerned.

“I couldn't find any helpful energy traces. There's a lot of interference. And Steve was caught in a pocket dimension, apparently just for a few seconds, but it makes it seem like he just popped up inside our world without any trace of how he came in.”

“No broken walls.”

“None apart from the door _I_ opened.”

Tony groaned.

“That isn't good?” Steve asked, he sounded exhausted, and his face was showing some of his disappointment. Apparently, for someone who wasn't wholly at home with his Avengers team yet, he had still been in a big hurry to get back. 

“Not for getting you home quickly. It _is_ good, because it means the walls keeping different realities apart won't just unravel and take us all with them,” Tony said, and made a face.

“Is that stuff you deal with on a regular basis?” Steve's forehead creased and in Tony's estimation he looked like he wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer to that.

He grimaced and said: “It's been known to happen. But it's more Reed's thing than mine.”

Steve nodded and sighed. “How long will it take then? I need to get back, make sure everyone is alright.”

“A few days,” Reed told them. “It might be longer. It's virtually like looking for a needle in an infinite haystack.”

“But his people will be looking for him, too.” Tony just knew it. “Maybe we can find their probes and make contact?”

Reed shrugged. “Still a matter of finding it. At the moment I'm tracing the residue Von Doom radiation. Why did the platform not travel with him, if it was one of Doom's? You've traveled with one before, too, Tony. Doesn't it strike you as odd?”

“It's time travel, Reed. The only thing I find more annoying and _odd_ than time travel is magic. So there's that.” He took a deep breath and pinched the back of his nose. “We need to rebuild the device that brought him here. So we better look into all we know about time platforms.”

“So you have a plan?” Steve asked. He stood beside them, arms crossed in front of his chest and waiting. The forlorn expression on his face made Tony inwardly cringe a little.

“Yes,” Reed said. “But it will take some time. Which, I think, brings us to our next problem.” He turned to Tony and gave him a pointed look. “Don't you think it's time, Anthony?”

“We need to tell Commander Rogers. Procedure. I should do it.”

“ _Commander_ Rogers?” Steve asked and he frown deepened. “That's not... me, is it?”

Tony turned to him with a wry smile. “The other you, yes.”

In the stark light of the lab Steve's face was pale already, but with this announcement some more color drained from his face and he bit his lip. “Why Commander? Am I not...?”

“Captain America? A lot of people have a hard time thinking of you as anything but.” Tony smiled, self-consciously. “I know to me you'll always be Cap. _He_ 's always going to be Cap, I mean. God, this is confusing.” And when he got to tell Steve all about it he'd probably laugh at him for the way he got all flustered with his counterpart.

This Steve didn't laugh, he just watched him, his mouth setting into a thin line. He knew that expression. “Yes, all of this is really confusing,” he said flatly. He looked over at the computer and then back at Reed and Tony. Something had shifted again and Tony wasn't sure what it was, but Steve's shoulders had tensed up and he was nervous about something. “But there is going to be a way back for me? I'm not going to stay here, right? It's just...” He broke off and looked away, as if he had no idea what to do with himself.

“There is going to be a way back. The way back isn't even the problem,” Reed explained. “The problem is not sending you just anywhere, but to the right place.” It was stated in a matter of fact way and Tony was sure Reed thought he was reassuring.

“Steve?” he asked. “What's wrong?”

“I could be stuck here,” he said, and Tony's throat constricted, his gut felt like it had just taken a physical blow. “What if I _am_ stuck here?”

“There is a very low likelihood of that happening, Captain,” Reed informed him, sounding actually reassuring.

“Steve? Listen to me,” Tony started, “you are not stuck here. This isn't your home and you are needed where you come from, but for as long as you're here this world is going to be your home, okay? Just don't worry too much about it. We will do what we can and I promise this won't take long. We're actually kind of _good_ at being geniuses.”

Steve gave him a half-hearted smile at that.

So he added: “You'll get home. And it will be the right place and the right time.”

This time Steve gave him a sharp look, meeting his eyes questioningly. “The time machine talk...”

“It is not going to be a problem, Steve. You're not going to lose another few decades. We're going to solve this and be as quick about it as we can. But now we need to tell...”

“No,” Steve said firmly.

“What?” he asked startled, focusing back on Steve's expression with a frown of his own this time. 

“I said, no. We are not going to tell anything to Commander Rogers, or whoever I am here. I don't want to meet him. I just don't want to meet him.”

Tony knew he was standing there frozen in shock, but his mind already racing with questions. Something had set Steve off and he couldn't figure out what it was exactly. He got the fears about being lost in time again, got the uneasiness of having to adapt to a new place so soon after finding a new home in what probably still felt like the future. But this was something else.

“It's better this way,” Steve concluded, without giving Reed or him another glance. 

“You do not understand, Steve,” Reed told him. “We do have procedures. Anything out of the ordinary happens? We keep Commander Rogers in the loop.”

“Is that so?” Steve asked and narrowed his eyes. A dangerous sign, because it meant two things: Steve Rogers had a plan and he was going to stick to it. Then he asked Tony: “Why?” But his expression flickered for a second as if he wasn't happy about even asking the question.

If _he_ wasn't happy, than there wasn't even any way to describe how unhappy Tony felt about this turn of events. He just knew that Steve had made up his mind to be stubborn, because he already had decided what would be the best course of action – and predictably he hadn't even know this person for 24 hours yet, but he was _Steve_ and so they were heading for a fight. It was like a law of nature. “We do have rules and laws, Cap,” he said. “Not sure how things are done where you come from, but here we superhero types have to follow some procedures. Believe me, we have our reasons.”

“Like working with S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Steve asked.

Tony kept himself from grimacing. “Yeah, sometimes some of us do that,” he said.

“Probably not you, huh?” he asked. His face was still wearing the expression that Tony associated with trouble, but there was an amused glint in his eyes, too. 

He wasn't sure if he was being teased for something or if this meant that – was his alter ego also doing an interlude as director of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or was it even something more permanent? The thought alone made him shudder. Maria Hill was constantly reminding him that whatever he'd been allowed to forget, she would not let him _ever_ forget that he'd been a horrible director. It wasn't exactly clear to him what it meant that she had still learned to grudgingly respect him during that time, probably against her better judgment.

Well, as far as he could tell anyway. 

And who could ever be sure with Maria Hill?

“So, I'm guessing you don't actually disapprove of keeping some secrets from them?” Steve challenged.

“It's not _S.H.I.E.L.D._ I would be keeping anything from, it's _you_ ,” he said and knew his own voice was rising in answer to the challenge.

If possible there was even more amusement in Steve's eyes now. “That's the first time that you actually sound angry with me. Now I can finally believe you're Tony Stark.”

“Okay, cut that out, mister” he said, and he was also beginning to _feel_ a little angry now. He hated it when Steve got all condescending and superior, while turning the tables on him. He _hated_ to be reminded how arguing was just part of who they were, because right now he was working very hard on _not_ giving Steve any reasons to argue with him; not now and not ever again if he could help it at all, although he knew how pointless even thinking it was. “I have no idea what your Tony Stark is like and what's your deal, but stop pretending you have a hard time believing who I am, because you've followed me here without putting up a fight. And you _would_ have put up a fight if you'd had any real doubt about me. So let's stop this game where both of us are comparing each other to the people we know and let us instead come down to what exactly is wrong.”

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” It _sounded_ exactly like Steve telling him to step out of an argument to have a heart to heart. Tony glared. He _hated_ that, too.

Reed was watching them warily. Apparently even he was picking up on all the things that were going on under the surface.

“We were already talking,” Tony snapped, and for some unfathomable reason _that_ actually made Steve smile. Okay, so what? Apparently his relationship with any Steve was automatically messed up. Nothing new there. So he glared some more, until the still smiling Captain gestured for them to walk back to the place where Tony had been working a minute ago. 

“Are you getting defensive because you think I don't trust your judgment or are you getting defensive on Commander Steve Rogers behalf? Because if you are I think I'm figuring out how Tony Starks work, finally.” Steve picked up the upper part of his Captain America costume and inspected the material as if he was looking for something. “I think I liked the one they gave me before better,” he said with a comical expression.

“Don't try to sidetrack me. You wanted to talk, now talk.” Tony walked around the chair and took the uniform from Steve, planning to untidily drop it back on the chair just to annoy him. When he actually held it he squinted down at the material, though. “Who made this? S.H.I.E.L.D.? I can see at least three ways to make this better by just looking at it.” He dropped it on the chair as untidily as he had planned, meeting Steve's eyes that were again glinting with some amusement. “Don't think you're figuring me out, Steve. The you here knows me pretty well and he'll still tell you that it needs more than understanding how I work to make me see things your way.”

“I have no doubt about it,” he said, the corner of his mouth was rising. “That's familiar.”

Tony shrugged, not ready to be lulled in by the amusement, and held up both his hands to gesture for Steve to go ahead.

“I don't know him,” he said and inclined his head in Reed's direction. “I don't think I have any reason to doubt what he's saying. But it's you who is familiar and who I can, maybe, read better.”

His eyes narrowed, waiting for the “but” that hadn't come up yet.

“It's both easy and hard looking at you seeing someone else, and...” He hesitated.

“You think meeting yourself will be uncomfortable,” Tony concluded. 

Steve shook his head, then sighed and shrugged. “Strange, yeah. That's not what I'm trying to avoid. It's something your friend said. You said it could be disconcerting to see other possibilities, and he said it could influence the decisions we make.”

He hoped his face hadn't drained of all color. “He meant seeing _all_ the possibilities. Too many of them. It makes your head spin, makes you look for patterns. It's like...”

“It's knowing too much,” Steve ended his sentence for him, but Tony wasn't sure that was really what he'd been about to say. But _maybe_ that was exactly what it was, was what he himself was afraid of the most. Everyone kept telling him that he was smart enough to know how to work his way out of a pinch without ending his own life, he _knew_ he was, but he still tended to take the option that meant a huge personal risk to him more often than not. Both Pepper and Maria had told him how he'd manipulated both of them into going along with his brain deletion. He hadn't even been decent enough to tell them that the drive Maria was supposed to retrieve would give them the means to restore him. Because _that_ decision was up to the people he'd wronged the most, or the people who represented those he'd wronged the most. At that time Tony couldn't have known Steve was alive. He'd thought of Captain America as Bucky Barnes when he'd made the decision and had still made it.

So if he had _decided_ to forget the time he couldn't remember now, then wasn't it because he had known too much? A database of names and identities that couldn't be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, the memory of a friend turning enemy, fighting him tooth and nail and ending up dead; a friend who had always been a little more important than that. Would he even be able to look at Steve without shame now, if he hadn't deleted that part of his memories?

He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and glared at the Steve in front of him. “What are you trying to say? What does it have to do with us telling Steve you're here?”

“Things are different here, but not so different that I can't recognize them. _You_. You're younger, but have a long history as Iron Man. You seem younger, but at the same time you seem, I can't explain it, _older_? And _he_ , he's me. But he's had more time to arrive in this time and place. He has a life, right here. How can I know that things that happened for him won't happen for me? How can I know that they _will_?”

Tony stared. He had known that Steve hadn't been with the Avengers long, had recognized some of the insecurity, the lost and sulky look Cap had sometimes gotten in the early days, when he'd retreated to sit in the library at the mansion alone, or sometimes with Iron Man, who had been his friend long before he'd know it was Tony inside the red and gold armor. But until now he hadn't realized how alone this Captain must still be feeling. It was hard to stay angry at him with that knowledge. 

Steve was afraid that he would go back with the memory of a life that he could never have, that he would wait for, yearn for, and that might never happen for him. He was afraid to see a life that wasn't worth waiting for and _knowing_ that was exactly what would come to pass. Tony wanted to tell him that was stupid, wanted to really tell him that he had no reason to be afraid. But it would be a lie, wouldn't it? Tony couldn't make assurances like that. “Can I ask you something?”

The way Steve's shoulders stiffened, said “no” loud and clear, but instead he said: “Shoot.”

“Are you friends? Are you and the other me friends?” He needed to know that much, didn't dare even hint at why friendship wasn't the right word to describe what connected him and Steve here. Why hadn't he admitted that truth? Why had he kept it to himself from the very beginning? Afraid of a different Steve rejecting even the idea of them? 

But he needed to know this.

Steve's eyes narrowed, but he didn't hesitate before saying: “I consider him my friend, yes.”

“And that is why you trust me?” Tony asked.

“Are you telling me not to trust you?” Steve asked cautiously.

He shook his head. No, there was no need to tell anyone _that_. “I want you to understand that I trust Steve. He's _very_ important to me. And this is something we can't keep a secret for long. Not from him. _I_ can't.” Oh, he knew that he _could_ , but the truth was that he _shouldn't_. It was a recipe for disaster, plain and simple.

A nod indicated that Steve was listening, not necessarily agreeing.

“I understand how you're feeling about this, Steve. It's _hard_ for you. It's confusing for us, for me, too, believe me. It's always hard to hear that somewhere else you have a different life...”

“I don't have that life yet,” Steve reminded him.

“I understand,” he repeated. But how did you explain that you weren't just saying it, but that you really understood? Because you had been there when Steve went through that early phase. “And I want to help.”

“Then at least give me time,” Steve said, and he had that determined glint in his eye that meant that he was sure that he could make Tony see things his way.

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They had to make a decision about this. Would his Steve, if the tables had been turned, have wanted to know about how his life could have turned out? With all that had happened to them, did _Tony_ want the other Steve to carry the burden of knowledge with him back to his world? Would he want him to know about the SHRA, about the things that had happened between Steve and Thor and Tony? Not if he could help it. He knew that this feeling was rooted in selfishness. But there was one thing: He liked this Steve and Steve seemed to trust him in turn. He had no idea that while his Tony was happy with Pepper Potts, the Tony standing before him now was trying to make things work with the other him. Maybe he should just tell him to make Steve see that there was no perfect life here that he would waste his time waiting for? But Steve was still standing in front of him, looking at him as if he was waiting to be challenged and Tony made a decision. 

“Listen,” he said. “I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but I was around when Steve struggled with adjusting to living a new life in the present. So, I'm not just saying it to make you feel better, but I understand. I've seen it before, okay?”

It was strange - and something he certainly hadn't seen before - to see Steve's expression soften and at the same time close off even more. They just stared at each other for the longest time, until Steve admitted: “That really doesn't make it any easier.”

“I know.”

“It's like you know me very well.” A painful admission, that much was clear. Tony kept from asking for details, decided that this was really none of his business. His business was on this side of the inter-dimensional mess. He couldn't do anything for Steve's life on the other side of it. But maybe he could help him see that he really had a place there and whatever that other universe held in store for him, the world needed him right where he was and would give him a home.

“I think I know Steve very well,” he said, feeling weird saying it like that. He didn't want to lie, wasn't sure how Steve would react to the truth, so he settled on the part of the truth that didn't seem upsetting. “He's really important to me.”

“And you don't want to lie to him.”

In truth he wished that things could ever be that simple. “I want to help you,” he said. “I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I understand why you're reluctant to find out more than you need to know Steve.”

“But you can't?”

He sighed. “Of course, I can,” he said and pinched his eyes shut, rubbing one hand over them. He knew this was a bad idea. He just knew it. He also knew he would go along with it. “This can't be for long. We'll have to tell someone what's going on.” He turned, mid sentence and looked in Reeds direction, thoughts already racing. “I'll call Hill,” he announced loudly, “tell her about the inter-dimensional portal and readings.”

“And nothing else?” Reed asked.

“For the moment,” he said and nodded. “There is no immediate threat. We're just working on reversing this and then everything goes back to normal. No enemy is following Steve here through time and space. If we find out there _is_ ,” he said and threw Steve a hard look, “we call in the cavalry asap. And I mean all of them.”

Reed shrugged. “I don't see a problem with it.” He wasn't going to say anything else about this, and it was Tony who'd have to talk to Steve, his own Steve, in the end anyway. When this went wrong, it would be exploding into Tony's face and nobody else's.

_It's not like we're keeping a bad secret,_ Tony thought. _Give Steve a few days and he might even change his mind about all this._

And he knew with a certainty that for someone who was so smart he was an idiot sometimes, but he couldn't help it: This Steve had never lived through the things he and Steve had lived through. This Steve and Tony weren't what Steve and he were for each other. Maybe they were team mates and maybe they were on their way to being friends. Their world was different. But that didn't change the fact that here in front of him was a Steve Rogers he hadn't let down yet.

And he really did not want to be the Tony Stark who did do that, not for this Steve, even if he couldn't turn back the clock for himself and his lover.

It was selfish, and irrational. But if this Steve had a chance to become whoever he could be by never knowing about the terrible things that had happened here, then maybe he deserved that chance.

And maybe so did the other Tony Stark.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve has made a decision about how his stay in this universe is going to work and sticks with it. And it also seems that the best way to deal with his stay is to go home with Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read and comment on this chapter on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/190683.html).

Some of the tension had left him the moment Tony had agreed to let him stay here undetected. Tony, who was, but _wasn't_ Tony. The name still tripped him up every single time he met the man's startlingly blue eyes. It still didn't seem completely _right_ , sitting here cooped up in a lab that reminded him too much of their first meeting on the Helicarrier. He was still waiting for the whole joke to come to an end with Clint stepping out of a door, smiling like a maniac and telling him they'd got him, that this was in fact just some silly way to confuse the old man on the team.

That, yeah, in fact _Tony_ set this all up.

The _real_ one. _His_ one. 

He knew it was stupid. You didn't just end up zapped from Eastern Europe to New York just for the laughs. Also there was Reed Richards, who could do things that were sometimes hard to even _watch_ without flinching. And, of course, there was Iron Man and the terribly advanced armor. He'd watched and talked to Tony now for hours. _This_ Tony. If he wasn't _a_ Tony, then he'd have to be a very talented and dedicated actor, who'd spend a lot of time studying Tony Stark, just to get Steve's trust.

No, that wasn't even unlikely. It was impossible. Too many things that couldn't be explained away. He pulled the phone from his pocket to look at it; the sleek, new Stark phone Tony had given him. He was completely unsurprised to see it unable to connect. 

Wherever he was, he wasn't home, there was no use in denying it. No way to simply call Tony or S.H.I.E.L.D. and ask for a quick extract. No, Steve understood his situation. He wasn't denying the facts, had in fact already settled on what he hoped was the best strategy to get through this, while keeping all possible problems and damages to the minimum on his side.

He looked up to look right at Tony, who had changed back into his dark suit pants and the white shirt. Steve was beginning to wonder how much training he had at getting his clothes off and on again, as he seemed to be able to do it so quickly, and the thought made him blush. He hadn't even noticed him stepping out to change once again. Hadn't noticed it last time either, now that he thought about it. He squinted and watched Tony stride up and down the room, talking animatedly on the phone as Reed came back from the level where he and his family were apparently living. He dropped some clothes on the terminal where Steve was sitting, nodding at him encouragingly.

“Look, Maria, Reed will send you all the data, you can go over it. Nothing happened. No big deal. I'll have to go to Seattle now,” Tony was saying. “Yes, you know me. I'm busy – yes, and that, too.”

His whole demeanor had changed since he'd agreed to let Steve stay here undetected. Outwardly he was acting like a man who had an objective, putting his mind to the task of making this work. But something had changed underneath all that. The man he'd met a few hours ago had been friendly, understanding, maybe a little cautious around him. But Steve could easily imagine that he'd been dealing with at least some degree of confusion, too. They knew each other, but didn't, and that made things complicated. But there had been no sign of strain and he only needed to look at Tony now to _see_ that there were some very visible signs of tension now. 

“Yes, of course I'm going to tell Steve, Maria,” he nearly snapped into the phone.

Steve winced and tried to guiltily meet Tony's eyes to let him know he was sorry for getting him into a situation like this. Clearly it would have been easier for Tony to just call in the other Avengers and let the other Steve Rogers know what had happened. And even Steve had to admit that his own stubborn decision to not let that happen wasn't exactly based on pure reason.

If he was in the other Steve's place he would want to know what was going on. 

He knew that.

But he wasn't sure he wanted to cope with even more confusion.

He wasn't sure that a Steve who was clearly in a position of power here was what he wanted to see. 

Commander Rogers. 

Something about that just sounded wrong.

Tony, for some weird reason, seemed to understand his worries and Steve wasn't about to question that. From the beginning he'd shown an incredible amount of understanding, not pushing, not demanding, giving him the room to come to his own conclusions. It was so different from the way he and Tony back home had come to know each other, pushing heads, testing each other and disagreeing, only getting to know each other in battle. Under different circumstances they could have met like this, maybe, could have been friends from the start.

He tried to banish the thought immediately. What mattered was that they were friends now, even if they hadn't seen much of each other recently.

Tony took that exact moment to startle him out of his thoughts by locking eyes with him and raising an elegant eyebrow inquiringly over much too blue eyes. He was getting used to it, even caught himself thinking that this was just how it was. Although he was still on the phone it seemed that Tony's attention was back on him. He frowned a bit and gestured at the clothes expectantly, motioning for Steve to get going and change.

Steve gave him a self-conscious smile, nodded at Reed more than Tony, and looked at the pile of clothes.

“We don't have anyone your size around here,” Reed said, back at work, and only half paying attention. “This was the best I could come up with.”

He didn't know the man well enough to know if he was apologizing or simply stating facts. “Thanks,” he said very quietly, nearly whispering. He didn't want Maria Hill to hear, didn't want to get Tony into more trouble than necessary. Instead he looked at the broad and slightly washed out brown hoody and the pair of jeans that might even fit him, although they were probably going to be a bit to small for comfort.

“Not going to be your best look,” Tony said, slipping his phone back into the pocket of his suit pants and looking at him expectantly. “Should do it, though. Don't want people to recognize you.”

Steve sighed. “I'm good at staying under the radar. But what exactly are we going to do now?”

Tony cocked his head to the side to look beyond Steve at Reed, who stopped typing and swiveled his chair around. “This is up to you, Steven,” he said. “It was your decision to keep out of sight. And I have a family, a team, living right here.”

“So, you'll have to stay with me,” Tony explained. 

At the words Steve felt relief flood him. Really, he still felt like Tony was his only true connection to this weird new world and although that was entirely his own fault for not wanting to meet any of the others, the prospect of maybe just being left behind here with Reed hadn't sat well with him. Of course, he hadn't voiced it, uncomfortable already with the way he was making Tony's life that little bit harder by his request.

“With you not wanting to meet yourself, Avengers Tower and the mansion are both out of the question for obvious reasons.” Tony shrugged and folded his arms in front of him. It didn't seem to be a good moment to point out that he had no idea why things were “obvious,” that in fact he'd never heard of “Avengers Tower” before. But it was Reed who nodded, easily agreeing to Tony's proposed course of action, before Tony went on: “And in Seattle I have the Resilient facilities and a big garage and work shop. We can build the arc that'll send you home there, without a horde of Avengers looking over our shoulder and asking for explanations.”

Steve glanced over at Reed questioningly, who nodded. By now he had realized that Reed and Tony were used to working with each other, were used to the way the other solved problems and made decisions. There hadn't been much squabbling, not much back and forth and very few questions. They had just fallen into a few discussions that had been hard to follow for him, much like Tony and Bruce would at home. He had expected them to work together, to work side by side until this problem was solved, had expected to stay here, right here, where they were solving it right now.

When he'd refused to meet himself, he hadn't thought about making life more difficult for anyone. Not to this extent. Not for more than a few hours.

“I'll do my research from here and send you all the data,” Reed agreed, oblivious to Steve's inner struggle.

Tony nodded, then saw Steve crease his brow. “It's not a good idea to stay in New York. Not if you don't want to meet Commander Rogers. Steve lives at the Tower, at least when he's not running around the world being a hero or the occasional nights he spends at his apartment. The new Captain America is at the Tower too. Often. It's the Avengers HQ.” He shrugged and then raised his arms in an inviting gesture. “Unless you've changed your mind by now and are willing to give in to your own curiosity, I'd say New York is not the best place to stay.” 

It made so much sense that the other Steve was at home here just like he was. Too much sense. He lived at the tower building with the other Avengers. He lived with the team. With a pang of guilt Steve remembered the key card to his own level inside Stark Tower that had never been used. Hopefully it wasn't a lost opportunity, another missed chance. When he got home he would make good use of it and find out how well he and Tony would get along then. “Okay,” Steve said. “Okay. And it won't be a problem, even if this turns out to take a while?”

Tony's lips quirked into an almost smile, but there was something beneath it that reminded Steve of the Tony he knew, something that was masking tensions again. “I'm not just anyone, you know? I have a house there, too. There's room. We're not going to have a problem.” Then Tony looked at Reed and smiled wider. “And it's not going to be for long, is it?” For some reason his smile still looked strained, like he wanted reassuring, although Steve couldn't tell if that was really still because of the talk with Maria Hill or because he'd just realized he'd be saddled with a house guest for an unforeseeable amount of time. “Get dressed, Steve. The sooner we leave the better,” he said after Reed nodded at him slowly.

He didn't need to be told twice. Labs weren't exactly comfortable and he'd spent enough time being poked and prodded to last him a life time. If he had a chance to get out, he'd gladly take it. And it had been an awfully long day already even for a man of his enhanced endurance. 

“You're probably hungry,” Tony mentioned as if he'd read his mind and stepped away, toward the exit they'd entered through when they came here. “We'll get something on the way to the airport. I'll have someone send the car over.” He typed something on his phone without looking.

Aware of all the logistics involved in staying under the radar, Steve nodded, and made the conscious decision not to voice any of his concerns, deciding to let Tony handle things without asking too many questions. He didn't want to alienate the person, who was reluctantly going along with his own uneasy scheme. Tony was doing this for him and he should be grateful for that.

So he finally picked up the jeans to take a closer look at them. Reed wasn't paying attention to him anymore, it was just Tony watching him guardedly without directly looking at him. He bent down to pull off his boots, worked himself out of the uniform pants. He wasn't particularly shy about his body, had spent too much time with soldiers in a war zone to feel the need around other men. But Tony was giving him a strange, appraising look before looking back at his phone with a frown and without saying a word. Steve tried not to grin. He'd not exactly taken Tony for someone who was squeamish about naked bodies.

After he'd slipped into the jeans and pulled the baggy sweatshirt over his head, Tony looked at him critically. “Really not your best look, but it'll do. Better keep the hood up and your head down.”

Steve just nodded.

For the moment it was best to let someone else take the reins, someone who knew this world. It was just that he remembered too well what that felt like with S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to make decisions on his behalf. At least he had some semblance of control here and nobody had forced him yet to meet the possibility of what could be his new-new life.

It wouldn't be for long.

He'd be home soon.

* * *

The ease with which Tony set everything up was... He didn't know what it was really, but maybe it _should have been_ worrying. A car appeared before the building and sunglasses were shoved into his hands and he obscured his features even more by pulling the hood low over his eyes, walking out behind Tony, his shield concealed in a hastily patched up package that Tony was carrying as if it was an important piece of equipment. Nobody even gave them a second glance, although Tony was looking good in his suit and with his bright public smile.

He wasn't sleek like a movie star or flashy like some of the starlets Steve had met during his time, but he was an attractive man and he did know how to carry himself. And he made it all seem natural. Howard had possessed the ability to become the center of attention, his natural charm, but in a different way, not like this man. He'd seen their own Tony Stark do it, but with a younger version of him it was somehow more noticeable, more obviously flirty if that was at all possible.

To Steve's astonishment there was no driver waiting for them.

“Told them to leave the car and go,” he got as an explanation and just nodded, wondering how exactly the driver was getting back to wherever he had to get back to. He picked up something from the seat and then held it out over the roof of the car. A paper bag with bright colored letters.

“I hope you like bagels,” Tony said. “Steve likes them. And you are Steve, so it seemed like a good bet.”

His stomach spared him from having to think up any kind of answer by growling and he was glad for the hood hiding most of his face. As Tony slipped into the driver's seat, Steve was reminded again that he basically didn't know this person at all, knew a similar person in an unreachable place, but not him. He got into the car anyway - following his lead as if this man was the “right” Tony Stark, who would have laughed incredulously at the thought of Steve following his lead without a fight. Feeling uncomfortable in the confined space of the sports car, he stared ahead as Tony took them into New York traffic.

The streets looked so familiar. People walking down the walk way, talking or just staring ahead; taxis swishing by as if they owned the place; car horns blaring. New York was still New York it seemed and he missed it terribly. His New York from back when he was little, playing at street corners with Bucky. But also the New York he fought an alien army in, had made new friends in.

He caught a glimpse of Stark Tower and leaned forward to take a look at it, only realizing that it was a different building altogether. Not a tower, but a complex of two towers. As he leaned forward he caught Tony watching him with an amused expression.

“We can still change plans, if you want to introduce yourself,” he said. “Everybody lives there, when they're not out fighting the good fight or living their private lives.”

“Everybody?” he asked breathless, thinking of Clint and Natasha, Bruce and, of course, Tony. Was Thor there? Tony had mentioned Thor. There was a strange sort of dark shape on top of one of the towers, but from this angle he really couldn't get a good look at it.

“You can ask questions.”

“I'm not sure I should,” he reminded Tony.

“Okay,” Tony said and shrugged. “Have it your way.”

Under different circumstances he wouldn't have been sure if there was a note of criticism in those words, but he was too overwhelmed with a longing for his own home to even think about it. “Thank you,” he said instead.

There was an answering smile, slightly distracted, that even touched the blue eyes that met his in the rear view mirror. Immediately he felt less lost. As they slowly lost sight of the building he made sure to remind himself that there was no need to be alone in Washington D.C. when a place in New York was waiting for him. He should have taken the first opportunity to be with friends and he would if he got the chance.

“You can eat, Steve,” Tony told him, stopping at a street light. “You've had a hell of a day and I know how your metabolism works. There is no no-eating rule in this car.”

“Is there a car where the rule applies?” 

“Not at the moment, no. There used to be one, but we rarely took it out for a spin anyway.” 

He stopped himself from asking for more details, interest piqued by Tony's casual use of the word “we,” wondering who exactly was included in it. But he was holding a bag of bagels and although up until now it had been easy to ignore that he was hungry, there was really no need to put off eating any longer. In the lab there had always been something to focus on, even when he'd felt like he was so out of his depth that he couldn't do much to help the scientists. At least he could ask questions and have them explain what they were doing. Strange and confusing as it had been it had at least not been awkward. There had been no time to let any awkwardness built up and he and Tony had fallen into an easy rapport, but from here on out he suddenly felt anxious again. 

He unwrapped the bagels to give his hands something to do and took a bite. 

Tony was focused on traffic and not watching him, so Steve leaned back and enjoyed the quiet inside the car and the city passing them by. 

“Tired?”

“I''m not even sure how many hours I've spent on my feet,” Steve admitted. “It doesn't usually affect me this badly.”

“There is a good chance that you've lost some time there. Even if you don't remember being trapped in that pocket between worlds your body might.”

He nodded, although he was still not sure he could warp his head around the concept of being trapped somewhere out of time and space. “Weird day,” he conceded. “I think I'd take fighting off an alien army over this confusion. Who knows what's going on at home?”

“You hate not being sure what to do.”

“For someone I only just met you know me really well, huh?”

“Funny thing that, yes. Feels like I've know you for years.” Tony smiled and Steve was strangely touched by the words. Of course, he knew Tony was talking about the Steve of this world, but it felt like he was talking about him.

“I'm glad the first person I ran into here was you, Tony,” he said and took another bite from his bagel.

Tony looked at him in the rear mirror. “Just like the first time,” he said under his breath.

“You were the first person I met here?”

“No,” Tony said and frowned. “You were found by the Avengers. So, technically it was Iron Man you got to meet before Tony Stark - and not only him. Astounding how long the secret identity bit lasted, now that I think about it. I wasn't exactly subtle about it. Bodyguard,” he shook his head and then met Steve's eyes, interpreting his staring correctly as surprise. “That's not what happened for you then?”

“You pulled me from the ice?”

“Well, it was a group effort. Thor did most of the pulling I think.”

“I was found by S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Oh,” Tony said and his mouth formed into a thin line, as if any mention of S.H.I.E.L.D. brought unhappy memories. “Could have been worse I expect.”

The memory of that first day awake after a decade long sleep still haunted him a little. He'd been convinced that Hydra had him and was trying to fool him, but when the truth had come crashing in with blaring car horns and colors and light, it had been even worse. Hydra he could have fought against. “It was a bit traumatic.”

“Says the war hero,” Tony said flippantly, but the accompanying sympathetic smile took any sting from his words. “If it makes you feel better: You thought I was a Hydra built machine, when we first met.”

He had to laugh at that. “So we didn't start off on the right foot?” That made him feel slightly better.

“Oh, we got along pretty well after we could convince you that we were not Hydra made wonders. And then you were all on your own pretty much the minute we arrived in New York, saving _us_. After that we, ehm, we became friends. But we do argue, you and I.” His expression changed into a smile that looked different from the smiles he'd seen before, like this was a sore spot. “We're both stubborn and we don't always agree...”

“You're not as infuriating as you should be, to be honest,” Steve told him and smirked.

“Don't tempt me. You're as stubborn as you should be, by the way.”

They fell into silence then, Steve happy to eat and note the slight but noticeable changes in the city around him. Perhaps it said something about him that it needed a Hydra machine sending him off to a different universe for him to completely feel connected again without a war raging around him. At least here he knew he had a goal: Getting back home.

And he had a friend who'd help him get there.

When they arrived to meet their “transport” Steve was surprised that it was a Quinjet. Tony chuckled. “Who do you think builds these things?” 

Sheepishly he told him: “S.H.I.E.L.D.” He smiled as Tony nearly broke down laughing as if he'd never heard anything more funny. 

His next surprise settled in when he realized that Tony would be the one in the pilot seat and that there would be nobody else around to see or watch them. For some reason, connected to all the things he knew about a Tony Stark who wasn't here, he'd expected a private jet and a luxurious flight over to Seattle, both of them sipping drinks and leaning back while the crew took care of the flying. “Not your style,” Tony told him with a smirk, when he voiced his thoughts. “And this will be quicker and won't alert everyone to the fact that you're hanging around. Which is what we're going for here, right?”

That made sense, of course. Still, watching Tony calmly fly a Quinjet from his position in the co-pilot seat like he did that every other day was going against all his expectations. But then he had to admit that the Tony he knew also had to be one hell of a pilot. Iron Man was a flying suit of armor and Tony was an engineer who was good enough with cars to just decide to jump into a race car in an actual Grand Prix when he wanted to. Would he really never have had the desire to fly one of the planes and jets he had developed for the military? Why was this even all that big of a surprise to him?

_Howard_ had been a damn good pilot. The best, really.

It wasn't like he'd known Tony Stark for a long time before this had happened. They hadn't even yet spent much time together outside of meeting rooms and battle fields. He knew his file, saw him on television occasionally, had asked Natasha some questions when they'd talked on a mission and he'd fought one battle with him and seen him sacrifice himself to save their city and perhaps the world. He'd known his father, but that didn't mean anything. There was this annoying little feeling telling him that perhaps he didn't know Tony Stark at all, but he knew better. He'd seen Tony under pressure and a person's true nature would show itself under pressure. 

“Is that what you believe, Steve?” Tony asked and only then did he realize he'd said the last part out loud. “Because, actually, that explains so much about Steves in general.”

“Don't you believe it?”

A wry smile with maybe even a hint of sadness graced his lips for a moment and he got a far away look. “Yes, I do. Brings out the best and the worst, doesn't it? Nothing like a little crisis to find out who you really are.”

* * *

The house was modern, big and new. Obviously they weren't in Miami and not in New York and the house was certainly not on the cheap side, but for someone like Tony being the proud owner it looked outright humble. Or at least that was what he was thinking, only having seen what' he'd seen of Stark Tower.

Tony pushed his wrapped up shield into his hands for him to hold and took an electronic key from his pocket. It looked a lot like the key that Steve had been given for his place in the Tower. After punching in an access code he pushed open the door and standing half inside and out motioned for Steve to get in, smiling like a friend inviting a long awaited guest. 

Like the place at the Tower the house was open and spacious, rooms flowing into each other. He looked around as Tony moved forward towards the living room area. His gaze got caught on a picture of Iron Man and other people in colorful costumes, standing on a small table to the left of the sofa. He recognized himself, of course, or rather the other him, and Thor, but he had no idea who the other two people in the picture were. “Put down the shield, Steve,” he said. “I know you like it close-by, but I don't think there is going to be an attack in the next five minutes.”

He looked at the package and leaned it against the wall awkwardly, when he looked up he saw another picture of a group of people in bright costumes. This time he recognized Clint and Natasha, but the detail that he couldn't look away from was Captain America's hand on Iron Man's shoulder. Tony of course caught him staring at it and threw a crooked smile his way, maybe coming to the wrong conclusions as he nodded at his still wrapped shield. “You can unwrap it in a moment, I swear. Would be positively strange to have Steve Rogers around without his shield.” His tone wasn't mocking exactly, but again there was some underlying meaning there that Steve could only assume had to do with the Steve of this world no longer being Captain America. “There is no 'no shields in the house' rule if you're worried about that. But I have a 'only throw when absolutely necessary' one in place. I'm not keen on spending too much on redecorating at the moment.”

Taking this to be a joke, Steve smiled back and slowly followed Tony as he walked around. “You can see the kitchen is over there and this is the living room. My bedroom is upstairs,” he gestured toward the open stairs with one hand and then pointed to the back of ground level. There are two guest rooms through there. Pick the one you like better. I'm sure you'll find some of Rhodey's stuff in one or the other, but don't worry about that.” He had led the way to the rooms in question opening them for Steve to look inside, looking at them critically as if he normally didn't even give them much of a second thought and now saw them with new eyes for the first time. “You can use the bathroom through there, but there is a bigger one upstairs, if you want to use that.” 

He looked into both rooms, not sure what exactly he should be looking for to make his choice, but because he had the feeling that Tony was waiting for him to make a decision, in the end sat down on one of the beds and said: “This one is okay, Tony.”

At this very moment he was actually waiting for the ceiling to talk at him, the A.I. running the house and armor had made itself know immediately at Stark Tower.

“Okay,” Tony was leaning in the door looking him over and it was once again hard to read what was going through his mind. “I do have a place downstairs where we'll do most of the work and there is a gym room... And we need to find something better for you to wear. You look ridiculous.”

“Not my color?”

“Not your size.”

He chuckled, amused and maybe even finally coming to grips with this strange new world he'd walked into this time. “I'm open to suggestions,” he said, holding out his arms.

Tony was still half chuckling, about to say something, but seemed to think better of it, looking at him as if he'd just had an uncomfortable thought. It was just a fraction of a second, but Steve was used to noting these kinds of reactions. He cleared his throat, before saying: “I think I might have something upstairs that might fit you.”

Steve tried to assess the difference in size between them, tried to imagine what he'd look like in Tony's things and grinned some more. “I don't think suits of any kind are my style.”

“Not suits,” Tony said, walking out and towards the stairs already. “And that's debatable. You cut a fine figure in nearly anything.”

“Just not this?” Steve asked, pulling at the fabric, hanging loosely around his torso. He'd sure be happy to get out of the jeans too.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to follow as his host walked away. Tony hadn't said anything about him being welcome upstairs beyond the bathroom. So he slowly got up and followed him uncertainly into the living room area and took a good look around again. “Should I come up?” he asked.

“Wait a second.” Tony appeared again at the stairs. “Got it.”

He was carrying some items of clothing, a comfortable looking button down shirt, a white T-shirt and worn jeans. 

“Yours?” he asked, because the shirt didn't seem like something Tony would wear – more like something Steve would pick out for himself. 

Tony shrugged. “I think they might fit.” He looked Steve over as if he was making sure he'd gotten the size right, but not meeting his eyes. 

But maybe he was reading too much into it. It took him only a few minutes to get changed and find Tony sitting at the counter in his open kitchen, where he apparently had just started up the coffee maker. “Have you eaten anything yet?” Steve asked, because he couldn't remember him eating anything at the lab. “You only had coffee back in New York, too.”

“Hmm, hmm. Is that what we're going to argue about now? Because I know your stance on substituting coffee for food.”

“I have a stance on these things?”

“A very obvious and impractical one, yes.” Tony looked at him and Steve could see that he was amused by this, probably remembering all the times his own Steve had started up similar conversations.

He couldn't imagine himself ever telling Tony at home what to do and being listened to in the process. “Does my stance on these things ever affect your choices?” he asked.

He was surprised at Tony's soft answering smile. “Sometimes.”

“Maybe you should have a sandwich then.” He smiled at Tony expectantly and was rewarded with answering laughter. When he laughed, this Tony looked even younger and with a pang he realized that even when he looked relaxed and sure of himself there was some underlying tension in the way he was holding himself, nearly invisible worry lines on his face. He tried to remember his own Tony, a bit smaller, a bit older, knowing brown eyes and annoying quirk of the lips when he was trying to wind him up. Were those worry lines there too and was laughing together the best way to get the tension to leave?

“I'm not even sure how much food there is around here. I have it delivered usually, but I'm not sure that we're stocked yet. Wouldn't be a problem at the Tower.”

The mention of “Avengers” Tower earlier came back to him and he hesitated to ask: “You mean _Avengers_ Tower? Are all Avengers living there?” Was the other Steve there now?

Apparently the question confused Tony a little. He had moved over to the fridge to check what was inside and taken out some orange juice without asking, just setting it down on the table with a glass as if he already knew what Steve would have asked him for. “Yes, well, not all the time and not all of them. Are you not? Living there? Or at the mansion?”

Steve shook his head, filing away the mention of the mansion for later. “I do have a key for Stark Tower. Or at least an apartment there.”

“This is all really, really new for you, isn't it? And you're not spending any quality time together in the library just talking? You and... the Avengers.”

“Library?” he chuckled. He couldn't imagine Natasha, Thor or Tony in a library for some reason, that he had to admit had mostly to do with him not being able to picture any of them doing anything so mundane. Bruce was the only one who in his estimation would like some quiet time with a book. He knew, of course, that he had no reason to believe any of the others _wouldn't_.

“Steve always liked the library.” Tony got up to get his coffee and Steve looked at the cup with a raised eyebrow. There was something familiar about the way Tony rolled his eyes at him and took a sip from his cup, just to show him that he would do whatever he pleased, then he set down the cup to look inside the fridge like he had just remembered something, shrugged and closed it again. “Seems like we're stocked. If you're hungry just take whatever you want.” He looked at his wrist watch with a nervous motion. “I'll probably head over to Pepper and the others soon, before she gives me another dressing down.”

“You're a busy man. I don't expect you to hang around all day, of course,” he said, although he wasn't looking forward to spending his time alone cooped up in an unfamiliar environment. “I'm grateful for all you're doing for me. But I don't want to inconvenience you. You're already taking the time building this... arc? … to get me home. So I understand if you have more important...”

“I wasn't about to say that, Steve. I think we need to talk about how the next few days will be going. And...” He took a sip of his coffee, perhaps to give himself a moment to figure out how to best say what he had to say. “We will have to do some of the work over at Resilient if I can't make them work here.”

“What exactly is Resilient?”

“My company. Well, our company, Pepper's and mine.”

“Oh,” he frowned. “Not Stark Industries?” It was hard to imagine that this was just another changed detail and there were some of the side comments Tony had made, like the one about not wanting to spend any money on redecorating. Prying wasn't something he was comfortable with, so he didn't outright ask the question, but waited for Tony to explain whatever he was comfortable with giving away.

Tony let his fingers drum out a rhythm in front of him on the counter and then slowly said: “This is going to be tricky. I'm not sure how much I should tell you and you basically already told me you don't want to know more than necessary. But I'm curious and have my own questions... How are we going to handle this?”

“I had hoped we wouldn't have to handle this, but the longer I'm here the harder it'll get,” Steve acknowledged. He had been thinking about this since he'd entered this world and now he was staring at his own hands and wasn't sure where to even start. He'd never had the chance to get to know Tony beyond the few facts everybody seemed to know about him, about the things S.H.I.E.L.D. knew about him, and he was spending so much time with this Tony now and he liked him. He wanted to know him better. Here was a chance to really get to know this person, but he had already _asked_ not to be let in close. “I'm sorry. I understand I'm putting you in a bad position.”

“No,” Tony said and held up a hand. “You really need to stop that. You're here by accident and it's not anything you could have controlled in the first place. _That_ is not your fault. And you don't want to have your life be controlled by knowing there are other worlds out there where your life may be different. _I_ understand that and it's okay. But we need to think this through. You _are_ here for now.” He shook his head and frowned. “Pepper needs to know you're here. She's my business partner. If I'm going to devote the next few days to a project that is not related to Resilient making a break soon I need to tell her _something_.”

“Okay,” he said, because that was really the only response. There were priorities and he understood that.

Tony frowned at him and then leaned back, arms folded across his chest. “I had expected more objections on your part.”

“I don't want to meet myself and I won't ask questions about the Avengers, but I already know things between you and Pepper are different here. You trust her. We can tell her.”

“That easily?” Tony emptied his cup and got up to set it down in the sink. “I should call her then. Tell her I'm here.”

“You haven't eaten,” he pointed out.

“I know, mum. I promise I'll eat something when we've gotten this out of the way.” 

Steve smiled. “That easily? I thought we were both so stubborn?”

“I think you have a lot to learn, Cap.” Tony fished his phone from his pocket and stared at it for a moment. “There is something else I wanted to ask you about. You said this was all one big accident and you're here because you didn't know what the time platform was and...” Tony swallowed and Steve knew what he wanted to ask, why he hesitated to say it.

The question had been reeling in his mind while Reed had asked him questions, too. “Reed said time platforms have to be activated to do their work. At least that's the case here. An accident would only have happened with a damaged platform.”

“Yes.”

“So it might have been damaged. I don't know anything about that.”

“I sense a but in that sentence.”

“I don't remember clearly, but I think... The agent who was with me in the room was smiling. In that moment everything was falling away and Clint was calling my name, and that guy I'd just met that day was looking at me smiling calmly. I don't know what it means. But I need to get back there and find out.”

“And kick some ass, most likely.” Tony smirked, but his face was pinched.

They both understood that if his rising suspicions were true then this was no laughing matter. “I'm worried about the others. I don't understand why anyone would do this or what they thought they were doing or what they even wanted to achieve. I don't know. It seems all wrong. But Clint was there and if something was wrong he might be in trouble now.” Thinking of the implications was not bringing up any good options. “The best case scenario is that someone would have accidentally killed me if Reed hadn't interfered. That is what happened, isn't it?”

“You're really calm about it.”

“Not the first time something like this happens to me. Well, the portal to an entirely different universe was new.”

“I can imagine,” Tony said and looked away. He froze and listened back into the living room apparently. And then Steve also heard the opening of the front door and the voice of a woman talking. “His car is outside,” she was saying clearly, obviously talking of Tony. The man in question was frowning, giving Steve a worried look. They hadn't talked about the possibility of involving anyone but Pepper in their little scheme yet and Steve didn't know who was out there. 

“Tony?” she called.

Tony gave him another long an questioning look as if he wanted to make sure Steve would be okay with whatever happened next, before calling over his shoulder. “Pepper?” he walked out towards her, towards the living room, leaving Steve to uneasily sit and wait in the kitchen. He could see her enter the house well enough from here, apparently just now ending a call on her mobile that looked suspiciously like the one Tony had gifted him with at home.

“When did you get back? The car is outside. No suit?” the woman Steve could now clearly identify as Ms. Potts asked.

“Long story,” he said and Steve couldn't see his face, but he could feel the awkwardness, could see the tension in his shoulders. Apparently he hadn't been ready to face Pepper just yet.

Steve was watching, taking in the obvious differences between Pepper and the Ms. Potts he'd yet to meet in person and she noticed him too, her eyes meeting his over the space of the floor. She gave him a cursory glance, surprised and then turning cold and professional, taking in the way he was sitting there, awkward and hesitant. “And you're not alone, Tony.”

“No,” Tony said. “I'm not.” 

She frowned, looked back at Tony. “Didn't you say Steve was...?” Then her eyes snapped back to him sitting in the kitchen, watching her watching him, searching his face suddenly as if something had just occurred to her. Her eyes snapped back to Tony and narrowed. “Is everything okay?”

Tony moved around her, closed the still open front door. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

Pepper's eyes narrowed even more, suspicious now. “Something is wrong?” 

“Yes and no,” Tony replied and looked at Steve.

“I only asked one question, Tony,” she said and nervously stared over her shoulder at Steve. “I'm not interrupting something _official_ , I gather.”

Tony paced back towards Steve, giving him a faint smile and mouthing: “It's going to be fine.”

Steve could feel Pepper's stare. She was obviously noticing differences and similarities, putting two and two together. He was about to get up and introduce himself, or start explaining what was going on, when Pepper said: “What is going on, Tony? That is not...”

“Steve,” Steve finished softly for her, drawing her surprised gaze again. “You're not wrong.”

Tony winced. “You're not right either. Pepper, I really need to talk to you for a second.”

“We are talking, Tony,” she said sharply, then turned to Steve, her hands against her hips, who was not at all sure how to react. How did you explain that you were a visitor from another dimension? It wasn't like saying you were from Europe and would only be staying the week and be gone again, was it? He had no idea how well Pepper even knew Steve Rogers, why she had immediately deduced that something was wrong here.

Tony took her by the hand and pulled her aside, all the while smiling at Steve reassuringly. “Pepper, I really think this is distressing enough as it is,” he said calmly and she seemed to freeze and all her attention turned back to Tony. “Can I explain to you first, before you interrogate my guest?” He gestured toward the stairs, before meeting Steve's gaze with a serious look. “It won't be long. I just think we should give her a chance to understand what's going on, before...” He gestured between them, but was simultaneously already pulling her toward the stairs.

Steve nodded, just incredibly thankful that he wouldn't be the focus of attention anymore, but not sure what he was supposed to do here all on his own. 

He watched them go and sat there until they were gone, before the silence made him uncomfortable. He hadn't been alone for even a minute since he'd fallen through the portal and it had been much easier to take all this with Tony and Reed around to reassure him that he hadn't just gone over the edge, that he wouldn't have to get used to another new life all over again, that this time it was only temporary. He stood and was relieved when his eyes fell on his still wrapped up shield and walked over to get it.

Only briefly did his gaze fall on another picture of Tony and his Avengers.

He really wanted one picture like that with his team. One were they weren't just sitting in the rubble of New York city after an alien attack. He could already hear Bruce protesting, see Tony roll his eyes at the suggestion, Natasha huffily explain to him that she was in fact a spy, that her work was secret. Maybe he'd get Clint to agree at least... 

Yeah, that would be nice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone keeps telling him this is going to get complicated. But at the core at it it's easy: He cares for both Steves and he's only in love with one. That's what easy means, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read and comment on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/193834.html).
> 
> Thank you to TonySnark_SassRogers for the quick beta!

Explaining what had happened only took a few minutes. Pepper had gotten so used to his crazy tales that she didn't even bat an eyelash at the mention of the portal accident and how Reed and him were trying to find a way to send their guest back where he belonged as soon as possible. _That_ she took in stride.

But not the fact that this Steve had turned into his secret mission. 

“Tony, are you out of your mind?”

“I can't force him to just go and meet everyone!”

“Don't give me that. You never have a problem with making people do exactly what you want. And the one who's going to be in trouble if this gets out is you and not him.” Her arms were folded in front of her chest and he knew she was just about ready to kick him, because there was just no room in their lives for even more complications. “What about _your_ Steve? Remember him? He's the one you should be thinking about.”

“He's busy.”

“He's busy _now_. And I feel I should remind you that you are actually very busy, too. But what if he isn't anymore? What happens tomorrow? In a week? When Steve calls you? When Steve comes here and finds out?”

“Steve's very much Steve and that goes for both of them. He'll understand himself best of all. He'll come around, if he has to.”

She pursed her lips and then shook her head. “Like _you_ always do?”

“It's not the same. This Steve? He's been through a lot. He's still in the early stages of getting used to a new world. And he trusts me, Pepper. I...”

“Damn it!” she said. “I knew it!” She pressed a hand to her eyes and sighed. “This means trouble. You know it. I know it. But he doesn't, and you're not telling him.”

He didn't reply, just waited for her to calm down and process the information, so they could go back upstairs and make sure Steve was okay. Which was stupid, of course, because what was supposed to happen to him here in his house? Steve wouldn't be harmed in the middle of his kitchen or living room. Captain America would be able to handle the threats of domestic life and kitchen appliances on his own for the moment.

And Pepper wouldn't just calm down and let this go.

“He doesn't know about you and...?” Pepper finally asked the most important question without even finishing the sentence.

He shrugged and let himself fall into the chair in front of his work place, to mask the tension that was immediately creeping into his stance. “No. He's afraid to find out much about Steve's life here.” He'd had hours to get used to the thought, so it didn't even sound like a flimsy excuse to him anymore.

Pepper hadn't had time to convince herself of anything though and she stared at him for a long moment, frowning. “How convenient for you. A Steve who doesn't know all the shit that went down between you two and _doesn't want to know._ Did he have trouble convincing you?”

It wasn't like a niggling voice in the back of his mind – that most times even sounded a lot like Pepper and sometimes like Carol – hadn't been telling him this same very thing from the start. But hearing it out loud felt like someone punched him right in the gut and he knew he had paled, visibly, because Pepper was looking away and sighing again. “You don't understand, Pepper. You do, but you don't. It's not about me. And he'll only be here a few days.”

“You _think_ he'll be only here for a few days, Tony. You and Richards both have not found a solution yet. What if you can't find the place he comes from? What if Steve finds out you're lying to him? Don't you see..?” She still wouldn't look at him and he looked down at his knees to avoid seeing the disappointment in her eyes. As much as he hated letting people down, it was something he did more often than not.

“I'm not lying,” he said through his teeth.

She found a table to lean against, bringing one hand up to hold it in front of her eyes, blocking him out to think. “You love Steve, Tony. You love him. You don't want things between you two to blow up. You have no idea how bad it was when it was bad.”

“I have a feeling,” he said, but knew that at this stage he wouldn't stop her from saying what she was about to say.

“No, you think you can imagine, because you saw the news and heard about it, but you don't. Believe me on that. I was there. Tell me, Tony, what do you think? Just how many people do you open up to, huh?” 

He shrugged. 

“Exactly,” she said and looked at him again. “And now ask yourself what all the people who told you about what happened actually knew about what was going on with you. With you and him.”

“He was dead, Pepper,” he said roughly. “I just need to think about _that_... and... This is not about that.” 

She studied him and nodded. “It better not be, for your own sake. You don't talk about it much and I don't know Steve well enough to judge, but you _have_ him now. Can't you just be happy?Don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up, even if the person you're fucking it up over _is_ Steve.”

“I won't force him into anything, but it would have made things so much easier if he'd agreed to meet the Avengers,” he admitted as a backhanded way of agreeing with her. “I wanted them to meet.”

“Yes, easier,” she said quietly. “But he's Steve Rogers so you'll bend over backwards to make him happy. You'd fight him to the death if you thought that would be the best for _him_ , but not when it would just make things easier for you.”

“Thank you for that note of confidence. I wasn't aware I had you around to psychoanalyze me.”

“It's become a bit of a hobby over the years,” she told him, her lips pursed, but not smiling. She was determined to not let him turn the mood so easily. “I know you. And we work well together. That's why you keep me around.”

“Very funny, that.” He smirked and sat up. “Maybe that's why in some other universe out there, we're actually good together. Apparently.”

Her whole face changed then, her eyes flashing angrily and then turning blank. “Don't joke around. I warn you, Tony, this isn't funny!”

He nodded in the direction of the stairs and the way up. “You can ask him, if you like. He thought we were together, because that's what he knows. Knows about a world that he has just learned to accept as his own.” The hardest part about it all was to think how much Steve had gone through already – but hadn't gone through yet. “He hasn't been out of the ice long. He's new to the Avengers. He's new to having friends in a place that's strange to him. He's Captain America, so of course he's pulling through. But he's vulnerable and he's confused. He didn't react well to the information that he's no longer Captain America here and for obvious reasons I didn't want the first thing I tell him to be that he died and someone else took up the shield to honor him and that's why we're where we are now. He's had a rough day and even Steve needs a break once and again, okay? Let's give it some time. He might change his mind about meeting the Avengers tomorrow.” He got up from his chair, aware that she was still watching him with a frown. He patted a discarded breastplate of an old suit that was lying on the workbench. “He asked me to imagine what it would be like to realize that he'd become something he never wanted to be. To know that in another world he'd found happiness and then go home forever waiting for that someone knowing they might never turn up. Can you imagine that?”

She gasped. 

“And that's it. Steve and I are trying now. Whatever you think - I'm not trying to sabotage myself or this relationship. But in that other world, for all I know, you and I are in love. But Steve and Tony can still be friends maybe. If they don't fuck it up, stupid idiots that they very likely are if this universe is anything to go by. I don't want him to lose that chance, because of... _this_.” He waved his hand around and sighed.

When Pepper finally took a deep breath and nodded, he was relieved. He had not expected her to come around at all at this point. “Okay,” she said. “I think I understand. In some other world Pepper Potts might be happily married to Happy Hogan and live out her days with a loving husband and a crowd of beautiful, healthy, happy kids, but it doesn't mean anything for me. _I_ will never have that.” He was scrutinized just for a fleeting second as if Pepper was not really looking at him, but at someone he used to be, like she was looking at the past. Perhaps she was thinking of Happy and their good times, maybe she was looking at the man who was in some ways responsible for her husband's death, or just at a Tony who had known things he had now forgotten. Then she straightened herself out. “Okay,” she said. “This is your life you're messing up and it's his life. If Steve flips out because you lied to him _again_ , don't come running to me.”

“Fair enough.” He was leaning against the workbench now waiting for her to make the next move and decide if she was ready to meet the Steve upstairs properly now. 

“And if this causes any trouble or interferes with the time you should be committing to Resilient projects then you owe me another upgrade. Two.” She tapped a finger against her chest at the point where the RT was embedded to make sure he knew what she was talking about.

He grinned. As if there was a way that he of all people would misunderstand any reference to something vital like armor upgrades.

“All the upgrades you want, Pep.”

She nodded and made her way over to the glass door that was separating them from the stairs, but stopped before entering the code that would open it.“You are sure this isn't going to be a problem? You and Steve under one roof. You are technically in love with him.” 

“I was Steve's friend for a long time. I know how to deal with being just a friend. There won't be a problem.”

That seemed to finally satisfy her and she opened the door. “Be a good friend then.”

* * *

“She's very nice,” Steve said, when Pepper had left, telling Tony again how important it was that he made it to the factory the other day. He'd promised to go over the car specs today and maybe get some work done down in the garage that would actually benefit Resilient and not just his current armor.

“Yes, that's Pepper. Very nice,” Tony said with a crooked smile, looking down at his tablet and at all the work she'd shoved at him during her short stay. It wasn't like he didn't know that the work needed to be done – like yesterday. Cutting their military contracts had been the right decision, but their private investors wanted to see results soon, too. With the new brand and new direction they needed to build confidence. There were multiple projects he was working on. The car was only to be their first product to be entirely run on repulsor tech, but far from the only one. And Pepper had made sure that they would be able to continue the Stark phone line seamlessly if they chose to do so. He had ideas for some minor enhancements and upgrades for the next one and was ready to sit down and work on them now.

“What are you working on? Armor?”

“We're building a car.”

“You do cars? I thought you did phones and...”

“Weapons?” Tony asked back, keeping a smile on his face. 

“Clean energy... stuff.” Steve grinned a bit, as if he was aware how Tony was struggling with his life as former weapons manufacturer. Maybe that was something most Tonys shared. 

“It's a clean energy car run by repulsor tech.”

“Like arc reactor technology?”

“That's not what I call it here, if it's even the same thing.” One hundred questions were on the tip of his tongue in an instant, but Steve wouldn't be the person to answer them. His Steve understood his tech, even if he didn't always understand all the science behind it. But _he_ 'd had years to get used to Tony and his life of engineering and tech innovation and incessant science talk. 

When Steve's hand shot out to press against his chest, he startled enough to nearly jump out of his skin. _That_ wasn't good. Touching had definitely not been part of his plan. Not with Steve being so... well, Steve but not Steve at all. He needed to get a grip. “What about this?” Steve asked and stared, taking in his startled reaction, studying him calmly and waiting for him to pull away or answer.

He cleared his throat and shook his head. “That's an R.T.”

“Okay,” Steve said. “Does it keep you alive?”

“In a way.” He really wasn't keen on that conversation at all. Steve still was eternally suspicious of Extremis and the way it had changed him. And even now that the virus wasn't working as it had in the beginning anymore, the fact that Tony had turned himself into someone who could just delete his own memory was something Steve would forever be sad and angry about. He'd gotten used to the R.T., even sometimes kissed it when he was being affectionate, but Tony knew he worried about all the ways that Tony was now more machine than man, worried about the things that might happen if someone found a way to shut him down or harm the source of energy that was running all his bodily functions. It didn't matter that Tony pointed out at every possible opportunity that he wasn't in any more danger than he had been before Extremis, that some of the dangers had changed, but that in the end it didn't matter if someone smashed in your head, busted your heart – or found a way to shut down your systems. There would always be someone after them in this line of work and it was a risk they all had to take.

“Talking about that makes you uncomfortable, huh?” Steve looked altogether too amused for Tony's liking. “Tony doesn't talk about his arc reactor either.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, because he had no intention of going deeper into this topic.

But Steve was still studying him with a strange sort of expression, half amused, half satisfied, looking too much like the Steve he was in love with, too much like he wanted to tease Tony about this for him to feel at ease. “At least I know what to watch out for. In case something happens.”

“Nothing is going to happen,” Tony said immediately and more out of reflex. “I don't think anybody is going to attack us here. Not at the moment.”

“The first time I ever set foot in Stark Tower it was after an Asgardian mad man had been defeated by the Hulk in your living room.”

That figured . He scratched his throat and made a face. “Happens. Rarely, but happens.”

“Yeah, happens,” Steve agreed quite amiably. The illusion was perfect now that he was wearing some of Steve's clothes. He was relaxed and apparently trying to wind him up a bit. It was perfectly endearing. “So,” Steve nodded in the direction of the R.T. “Don't die while I'm here, okay? I feel like the least I can do is make sure you don't get yourself killed while I'm here.”

“Oh?” he asked, not annoyed for once, mostly because he and this Steve didn't share the same kind of history he and his lover shared and whatever underlying worry or criticism was in the words, it wasn't _actually_ aimed at him. “Have fun trying,” he teased.

Steve chuckled. “Always the cocky one, yeah? That is familiar. You like putting on a show.”

“I'm good at that.”

“You are. It makes you hard to read sometimes.” He hid a yawn behind a hand and Tony had to stifle and answering yawn of his own. It had been a stressful morning.

“Does it? I'm never sure. Cap seems to have an uncanny way of knowing what I'm up to – when I'm not jumping through all kinds of hoops to throw him off track.”

“Ah,” Steve said and looked around again as if he was trying to get used to the surroundings. He got up, walking around, looking out a window and then back at Tony. “You call him Cap?”

“Old habits die hard. He's always going to be Cap to a lot of people, whoever carries the shield.”

Steve nodded, picked up his shield that had been leaning against the kitchen chair as if he was considering this. “Not sure that's true in my case.”

“Did someone pick up the shield while you were..?” He didn't want to say _gone_ , because he didn't want to think about the fact that Steve had been dead, had actually been gone, even if Tony couldn't really remember. 

But the younger, now apparently also more relaxed Steve surprised him by picking this up as a joke: “The shield was part of the Capsicle.”

“The... what?”

“Oh, didn't you call _him_ that? It's what Tony called me. Once. When he was angry. When we were both making each other angry. Sound familiar?” Steve stood and stretched a little, moving away from him, but he was smiling as if being angry at each other was one of his fondest memories. He looked back into the living room, still holding the shield and looking around as if he wanted to take in every detail. Then he smiled back over his shoulder at Tony. 

Belatedly Tony understood that this had been an actual question. “I call him a lot of things, but mostly Cap.” Mostly _Steve_ – out of costume. When they were arguing, when they were happy, even in bed now. “He used to call me Shellhead more frequently, well, years ago.”

“Okay, Shellhead. I'll keep that in mind.” Steve grinned, then his eyes found a picture hanging on his wall, an actual photograph of Steve, taken some years ago by a well known war photographer who'd seen combat and who'd captured Steve right in the middle of throwing his shield in one fluid motion. “You have a lot of pictures of your Avengers here.”

He shrugged. “I just moved here. Most of the place still feels a bit alien to me. I needed something familiar.”

“Ah,” Steve said and nodded. “I get that. Makes it feel like home.” He actually let his hand glide along the frame of another smaller team picture, the one that had Cap and Thor and Iron Man at the center. 

Steve used to carry around pictures. Some old and worn and black and white. Some of them new and recently taken. It was something he'd picked up during the war, when sometimes the pictures of loved ones were all you had to remind you that there was a world beyond the battle fields, that there was a reason for all this, something worth fighting for. It had been his only comfort sometimes, when he's missed the past too badly.

He watched Steve's fingers play reverently along the edge of his shield, still contemplating the pictures with a quiet attention. It was painful to watch, reminding him too much of a much younger Steve who'd found a home, friends and a new life with them, so he looked away. If Tony had been in his place he knew he would have had questions – and not just a few, but Steve had already shut the door on that himself, maybe regretting it a little now.

“Any pictures of home on you?” 

Steve shook his head. “Not much I own that is actually mine.” Then he seemed to remember something and he fished a phone from his pocket.

Tony whistled. “Is that a Stark phone? That _is_ a Stark phone. I recognize my own powers of innovation. Nice.”

While he tapped the touch screen, Steve smiled fondly. “Full of yourself, huh?”

“Always,” Tony agreed easily. 

“I suppose you have reason to.” When he'd found what he was looking for he held the phone up in front of himself so Tony could look at it. “There was this article in TIME after the battle.”

And there he was now. Tony Stark, older, different armor design, messier hair. Steve was standing alongside him, wearing a different uniform than the one he'd arrived in, one more like the classic Captain America outfit. “I look good,” Tony commented, mostly because he needed to say something, and took the phone from Steve to get a closer look. Looking at yourself like this was always strange, although with how frequently these impossible things happened to him one would think he should be getting used to it. At least this one was handsome, if a little banged up, and didn't show any signs of being a super villain. With what he'd been through with doppelgangers from other worlds he was inclined to think that was more than he could hope for in any universe. He skipped through the article. “Natasha looks good, too,” he added for good measure, marveling at the differences he could make out in this Clint, wondering about Thor's grim expression.“You have an interesting team there,” he said cautiously and smiled.

“Yeah,” Steve said and nodded towards the pictures in his living room “So, do you.”

 _You'd like them,_ he wanted to say, but cut himself off before it could slip out, “Interesting is a defining quality for an Avenger in any world.”

Steve laughed and accepted his phone back from Tony. “Interesting and stubborn?”

“Nah, that's just the two of us.” He threw a lopsided grin Steve's way before getting up. “There is a training room if you want to work off some energy,” Tony said, casually. “I'll have work to do and you don't look like you want to lay down and call it a day.”

“It's a bit early for that,” Steve agreed, voice low. Under different circumstances Tony would have pointed out that people were allowed to be tired after nearly dying and then finding themselves trapped in a reality that was not their own, but he knew Steve could be _particularly_ stubborn about these things, just like Tony could be when someone was worrying about him too much. “Do you think your friend will let us know if there are any changes?”

“He will, Steve,” he said. “If Reed finds something he will let us know right away. And we'll start building the arc right away, too. It will be ready when he calls.”

“Okay. Training room. Sounds good. Can I ruin these clothes?”

Tony shrugged, knowing exactly how many of Steve's clothes had made their way into his drawers the one and so far only time that Steve had stayed here with him. There would be something suitable for training there somewhere, too. Something for running at least. Surely, there was a conversation here somewhere that he should be having with another Steve, because staking claim on a place that he hadn't even properly been to yet was probably also some form of message he was sending Tony. “I think I can find you something else to wear, if you want,” he said with what he hoped was a neutral expression.

“Thank you.” 

“No need to thank me.”

A few minutes later Tony left him in the training room with sweat pants and a muscle shirt. He was determined not to be there for the changing of clothes part. Pepper's warnings were still loudly ringing in his ears and this one time he was determined to heed them. “Have fun destroying the sandbag,” he joked and saluted.

“That happens a lot, actually.”

“I know. I'm the one paying for them,” he said flippantly, already on his way to the door. “Might not happen so frequently if I'd train with you more often. Him. You know?”

“We do that?” Steve looked him up and down and his gaze wasn't so much appreciating as taxing.

Tony stopped inside the door frame and looked back. “Sometimes.”

“Oh.” Steve looked around the room, taking in what was there, from the mats for their hand to hand training to the treadmill Tony usually used when he was alone, before looking back at Tony, considering. “Maybe when you have the time.”

“Yeah, Cap, whatever you want,” he conceded much too easily. He slipped out of the room before Steve could hold him back. It was time to go back to work and not be distracted. Not even by the pull of fabric over Captain America's strong arms.

* * *

He went down to his make-shift garage and sorted through what he had there, what he might need to build up the arc. There had never been enough time to completely set up his workspace here, so what he had was all geared towards a makeshift armory that held a few of the armors that Steve had sent back to him after they'd been released by the newly reinstated SHIELD. He'd used one, melted it down, to give Pepper back her armor and he had no real need for the remaining ones, but to eventually strip them for parts.

He always told people that for all the things that Tony Stark was, he was not exactly nostalgic. He was a futurist. He looked to the future. No time being nostalgic if your whole thinking was geared towards tomorrow.

But when he looked at some of the old armors he always missed the hands down experience of building them, his hands deep in the guts of the machine, oil and grease getting everywhere. Once maintenance had been a messy physical exercise he'd engaged in nearly every day. Now with the armor he and Reed had created he only got to that part of the fun when he worked on Rescue or War Machine.

Oh, and he intended to do a lot of work o Rescue soon. He'd promised Pepper.

And Rhodey was still field testing some of the more sophisticated toys he'd stuck into his new, less obviously armed War Machine suit. As soon as he got back here, they could tackle the first round of changes.

Yes, he missed it. The pure physicality of it. The welcome reason to steal away and put in hours of work, tinkering and changing up the way the Iron Man was put together over and over again, just to make the repulsors that 0,1% more effective, to make him fly and move that tiny bit faster that might maybe make all the difference in a fight.

All of the progress now happened by reprogramming Extremis and the nanotech stored in his body. It was effective and clean and much too theoretical to be enough when he had something he wanted to take his mind off of.

Of course, it wasn't like he didn't have enough on his plate without keeping the Iron Man in good working condition. They had two weeks left to have both of their Resilient cars ready to meet the world. And that was only the one first step for Resilient. They already had bigger plans, were already looking beyond that, to make Resilient a lasting success.

He had his work cut out for himself.

And now he would also have to make time to build a dimensional arc and do it fast. The last thing he wanted to do was let the Steve upstairs down when the time had come to send him home. 

He looked at the unorganized assortment of machinery and parts that took up the most room in his not yet state of the art lab and began to calculate. He knew the dimensions of this thing. New how he would have to set it up. He'd spent most of his morning enhancing Reeds scanners and helping with his equipment. Building the arc there would have been convenient, building on existing systems. There was a good chance though, that Susan would have come upon it and then Reed would have been in trouble.

It would be so much easier to build it over at Resilient, but they didn't have time and room to spare for crazy Avengers business and he really didn't want to get his little start up company and newly growing family into any more trouble than they already were in - by fact of his involvement and by what he was by bringing into work from his superhero life. No, he had chosen the company name to one day work without the Stark in it precisely to minimize his own involvement and give the company a fighting chance even without him. Iron Man was his project and had nothing to do with this project and it would stay that way.

He leaned back to survey the space and all the parts again. 

Obviously he had his work cut out for him, beginning with the task to finally turn this place into a state of the art work place and armory – and then building the way back for another Steve Rogers who was a man out of place _and_ time this time around.

And Pepper had insisted that he look over the final specs, before they started manufacturing the car's chassis. Which they wanted to do as soon as possible, so they could run proper tests. He knew that was where he needed to start, where his own future would be decided, where people depended on him in a very real and very tangible way.

But he couldn't shake the feeling that the arc had to be built first. He had promised Steve to bring him home and he was damned if he wasn't going to keep his promises to him. He nearly hit his fist onto the workbench, only at the last milisecond realizing that the armor had reacted to his intent and brought out the shell of a glove. He stopped his hand in time and stared. 

No, destroying the work place was definitely not the best way to get started. 

Although he was good at rebuilding, of course. 

_Too good_ at rebuilding after everything had come crashing down. By now he had altogether too much experience in that department.

One day he would even be brave enough to ask Thor if that was why he and Resilient were now in charge of rebuilding Asgard. It was, of course, unlikely that he would ever be brave enough to right out ask. He would maybe one day be stupid enough to make an offhanded remark about it and watch Thor give away the answer by reacting like a noble and true warrior. 

A beeping noise announced an incoming message. 

It wasn't an Avengers alert, so his first thought was of Steve, but when he put it up on the monitor it was Reed's face that greeted him. “Hey, Reed,” he said after opening the connection, “any progress?”

“I've narrowed it down to about 6000 possible realities.”

“That doesn't sound ideal, but not as bad as I expected.”

“I'm talking about the worlds I have data on. You realize it could be one I never mapped in the first place,” Reed pointed out. He was sitting back in his chair, not typing or obviously working, but he reached out with an arm and stretched it to get a cup of coffee from another table in the room. Coffee. He should have started by making sure he had enough coffee in reach. An impermissible oversight on his part.

“Are we making progress then?” Tony rephrased his first question.

“Yes, we are, but it's not going to be quick.”

That wasn't good news. “How much time will it take? Just give me an estimate.”

“A week,” Reed shot back, which meant that he'd been thinking about it before he'd even called. “I didn't find the radiation traces I was looking for. The time component may be an issue. So I'm trying to narrow it down by finding world's with the right setup and tracing.”

“Okay.” Tony had expected as much. A shorter stay would have made everything easier for all of them, but there was no way around being patient sometimes. He would figure out what to tell _his_ Steve when the time came. And that time would come soon. It had to.

“I might have to build the arc over at Resilient. I don't have the room to do it down here at the moment without some serious redecorating and the only other place that would be big enough is the living room. But I'm not yet sure what to tell Steve about... well, Steve, so I don't want to have this conversation come to blows, because he comes to visit and walks right into an arc with a time platform attached after stepping through my front door.”

“I wouldn't like to have that conversation.” Reed didn't wince exactly, but Tony had the feeling that Reed was talking from experience.

“Me neither.” He could certainly emphasize. 

“What if he walks into himself? Have you thought about that?”

He had very decidedly tried not to think about that. It was unlikely to happen as long as he didn't manage to convince the Steve upstairs to come along for a visit and reveal himself, because his Steve was too busy to just drop in on him unannounced. But everybody else seemed to think he needed to think about the possibility, so maybe he shouldn't just shrug it off. “Reed?” he asked, because they didn't really need to pretend they were just asking innocent questions here. They had been friends for too long. 

Reed looked away then and pointed out: “Susan would murder me. Or at the very least lock me out of our home.”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed and tried _not_ to picture how Steve would react, but it was too late, his mind had already provided him with all the things he didn't want to think of. 

“Not literally, of course,” Reed added as if he needed to remind himself of that fact what Susan could do with her powers if she was angry. 

“Steve would be upset and disappointed.”

“Right.”

“He's not going to find out. I'm going to tell him.”

Reed was silent for a moment and Tony was sure something else had caught his attention. He was typing again. “We better see to it that we get Steve II home.”

“Is that his new designation? Steve II? That's not very imaginative.”

“His world probably doesn't even have a designation yet, so I needed a simple system.”

“Makes just as much sense as anything else.”

“How do you keep them separated in your head?”

“It's very easy. Steve-I-kiss and Steve-I-don't-kiss.”

“Not very scientific either.” Then Reed sighed. “Tony,” he said without inflection. “You do realize that it's not likely that this just happened by accident?”

“As we're both men of science I'm sure you're not implying that destiny sent me a second Steve to fulfill all my needs and secret desires.”

Reed snorted. “No, Tony, that's not what I'm saying, because the only person who'd even think that would be you.”

“Yeah, right. My bad.”

“So you knew already?”

“Steve knew already, too. He's Steve. He's perceptive. He's smart. He understands strategy and he knows when he's being played.” He picked up a screwdriver from the workbench and put it away, to give his hands something to do. “We can't do anything about that from here, can we? His world's problem.”

“No, we can't do anything about it,” Reed said and it was obvious that he'd been thinking about that, too. “But he should be aware. He'll be thrown right back into whatever it was that had been going on if we're successful.”

Tony nodded. “He's aware. Keep me posted, will you?” He changed the subject, itching to get back to work, to at least get started, to not think about all the possible complications.

“I will. Let's get this done as quickly as possible.”

“Yes,” he agreed. Out there a world was one Captain America short, and he knew from what had gone down here that this wasn't a good thing. And the fact that someone had wanted to get rid of said Captain America could only mean that trouble was already brewing.

“Don't let that become a problem, Tony,” Reed warned.

“We're not married, Reed.”

“Yes, I know. You're just trying to build a relationship. We don't talk about this often, Tony, but I'd be less if Sue wasn't around. Think about that.” Reed audibly cleared his throat and Tony was at a loss of how to react. Losing Steve wasn't something he wanted to think about, not when they were finally in a better place. He and Reed also didn't have serious conversations of the personal kind very often, which meant that like Pepper Reed was sure he was in trouble. “I'll send you the data I have and the calculations I made... And I'll get back to you tomorrow,” Reed ended the thought.

“Fine,” he said, tersely. Realizing that Reed really wasn't to blame for his own nervous state and he had only himself to blame, he added: “And thank you.”

He closed the connection and sat down on the workbench surveying all the crates and boxes, all the equipment that still needed to be put up. But the only real question on his mind right now was where exactly Steve I was right now and if he would ever even hear of whatever secret operation he was on. Just last night they'd collapsed into bed together, but it seemed days had gone by since then. And although there was a Steve II right there upstairs, the Steve he missed was the Steve who'd left him a sweet note with his coffee this morning.

* * *

He stepped out of the lab two hours later, with the goal of finding his guest and making sure he wasn't uncomfortable – or even worse sitting somewhere in the dark contemplating the injustice of life. He remembered too many times that Iron Man had found Steve sitting alone in the Avengers' kitchen or library, staring at nothing and looking lost. Even now Steve sometimes got the far away look and sad expression that made Tony feel like he'd failed him somehow, that he was still wishing for a life that he couldn't have anymore, one where he'd never woken up with the Avengers and Tony, had never been frozen in the first place.

There was no trace of Steve in the living room or kitchen. Tony contemplated the empty space, knowing that he shouldn't go looking for distractions and at the same time should not let a lonely Steve mope around on his own, and so instead steered towards the fridge to pour himself some orange juice. He hadn't even made it properly into the kitchen when his phone rang. 

The ring-tone was unmistakable. He'd chosen it for Steve only days ago, after Steve had been humming the song absentmindedly in the shower.

He fished the phone out of his pocket and answered immediately, now glad that he hadn't found other-Steve yet. “Hey,” he said. “Are you in trouble?”

A soft chuckle answered him. “Isn't that what I usually ask you?”

“Is it? Why would you ask me something like that?”

“Because I should know better and just assume you _are_ in trouble, but it's more fun this way?”

“Very funny,” Tony said, but couldn't stop grinning. “Had a nice day?”

“I... No, not really. It's all a bit... complicated. I'm sorry I had to leave this morning.”

The apology brought a smile to his face. It was just so touching, sweet like Steve could be when you let him. “You left coffee. That's not as good as waking up with you, but it goes a long way.”

“And here I was worried I would be missed.” Feeling a pang of guilt at the comment, Tony looked towards the stairs. It was both hard to miss someone who was technically in a twisted way here, and very easy to miss someone who you were thinking about constantly. “Are you still in New York, Tony?”

The question indicated that Steve himself wasn't in New York or he'd know. It also meant he wasn't on his flying H.Q., tracking the whereabouts of Avengers across the globe. He was somewhere on mission, but he was taking the time to call anyway. “I'm in Seattle,” he admitted.

“Ah,” Steve said, “You said you needed to go.”

“You're not home either?” Tony asked, already sure that Steve wouldn't readily forward any information about the mission or his current whereabouts. He was all too good at playing secret agent these days. So Tony had to take shots sometimes. He leaned against the kitchen table, listening intently for any background noises, but there was nothing but the soothing sound of Steve's breathing there. 

“No,” Steve admitted. “I had hoped I could be back this evening, but something has come up.”

“Something always does.” Tony scratched at his forehead. Something had come up for him, too, and he was stuck wondering how he'd admit it all to his lover. “Don't feel bad, darling. There's a lot of work to do, I don't think I would've had much time to wait for you in New York today anyway.”

Steve huffed. “I have a flying car. I could have come by.”

The sentiment warmed him, but half his mind was already looking for a convenient excuse to stop his lover from being the wonderful man he was and drop in on him and their unwilling guest. “But you can't?” he asked. “I spend a good deal of my time stuck in a flying tank, I could come to New York...”

“I'm in Madripoor, actually,” Steve explained and that was more information than Tony had expected to get.

“Oh,” Tony said, “You're having fun without me, then.”

Steve laughed. “I wouldn't call it fun. But we can come together next time and... have fun. Any time you want.”

He knew he was smiling, glad that Steve had found a quiet moment to call, to flirt and banter. It was so much like Steve to be sweet even about going to one of the worst places on earth, because he knew Tony too well. “That sounds nice,” he agreed readily. “Romantic weekend in Madripoor, city of crime and sin. I'm game if you are.”

Someone was calling Steve's name in the background, and Tony knew instantly that it was Sharon. There was nothing surprising about that. They worked together all the time, they were leading operations together all the time – like he and Steve used to do on the Avengers once upon a time -, but he still felt a little stab at the thought that Steve was on mission in Madripoor with his ex-girlfriend.

“Tony,” Steve said, “I have to go now.”

“Yeah,” he acknowledged, voice soft and forcing himself not to let his own bitter thoughts ruin the moment. “Don't get killed, please.”

“It's nothing so bad. Don't worry.”

“When I tell you something like that, do you ever believe me?”

“No, not really,” Steve admitted and Tony could easily imagine him smiling softly. “I'm going to be fine. I have a whole group of Avengers covering my back.”

But not him. He supposed with a little luck Rhodey was there to make sure Tony got his lover back in one piece. Officially he didn't know anything about that, of course. “Okay, then, stay safe.”

“I miss you,” Steve added unexpectedly and as if he was rushing it out now.

“I miss you, too. Always.”

But Steve was already hanging-up. Something had happened. Something had cut their time short and now Steve was somewhere out there fighting, spying, protecting, whatever, and he wouldn't hear about him being safe or in danger before it was all over and done with. He understood that Steve had an even wider range of responsibility now and he would never hold it against him, just like Steve would not hold his busy life against him. 

He stared at the phone and sighed, wondering if he'd ever get comfortable with it all.

“I know I didn't ask,” Steve's voice spoke up and Tony startled so badly that he nearly dropped the phone. He caught himself in time and turned around to stare, frantically backtracking and trying to remember what exactly he'd just been saying, how much of that the Steve right here might have heard. “You said you and Pepper weren't together. And it didn't even occur to me to ask if you were...” Steve gestured towards the phone. “You're with someone, yes?” He was standing on the stairs, dressed in more of Steve clothes, his hair still wet. After working out he must have taken a shower, his blue eyes trained on Tony, intrigued and searching. He looked much younger like this, but just as attractive as Steve had always been to him, but just different enough to not allow Tony to forget that this wasn't his lover.

“I'm in a relationship,” Tony admitted, regretting it instantly when he saw the spike of interest on Steve's face.

“And she lives a dangerous life?”

He knew he must have made a funny face at that, because this had been one of the big conversations that he seriously did not want to have with Steve – any Steve for that matter - and Steve looked at him now even more curious and attentive and so Tony thought about how he should go about this and said: “He does.”

“Oh,” Steve said, surprised. “Do I know him? Wait, don't tell me... I... It's probably non of my business.”

Under other circumstances Tony might have laughed at the irony of it all. “It's all a bit complicated,” he said, leaving it up to Steve to decide whether he was talking about his relationship or the fact that Steve _wanted to know, but didn't_ , conveniently helping Tony conceal the truth without lying.

Steve smiled. “I'm glad you're not alone. I'm told the relationship with Pepper is very good for you.”

He didn't really want to hear _Steve_ talk to him about any Tony having a relationship with Pepper right now. It was so wrong and so terrible, too close to all the things he couldn't remember, a world where Steve had been gone and Tony might have ended up with Pepper – or anyone, for that matter -, but would have been forever blaming himself for that unspeakable loss. That wouldn't have been fair to any of them... “You're told?” he asked faintly, not really even interested in the answer.

At least Steve had the grace to shrug, looking unsure. “You still do crazy things, if that's what you're afraid of?”

“I'm usually not the one who's afraid of the crazy things I do, Steve.”

It earned him a more confident grin, soft and challenging and all Steve. Immediately Pepper's warning popped into his mind, the memory of Reeds phone call still fresh, and he turned to look away to not stare or even meet his eyes, to not give himself away. But Steve wasn't finished. “You scare _me_ to death sometimes. A bit too frequently.”

“That's not me, Steve. That's _him_. And don't you look at me like that. Yes, I do crazy things, too. Occasionally.”

“Well, you're coping with me being thrown right at you as if it's no trouble at all, so I guess you're used to all kinds of crazy things.” Steve finally walked towards the table to sit down, he leaned back and grinned, his eyes shining.

Tony contemplated the sight of Steve sitting at his mostly unused kitchen table, looking relaxed and comfortable. He knew it wasn't right to think that, but he could get used to that sight easily. “Not all of them are bad,” he said.

Steve nodded, catching Tony's gaze. “Yeah, not all of them are bad.”

It was high time to change the subject. Steve getting more comfortable was wonderful, but Tony suspected it was not a good idea for _Tony_ to get too comfortable with the situation. “Reed called. He thinks this might take a while, but he's sure he can figure it out. We'll take it one step at a time. But for the time being this is your home.”

He expected Steve to look a little lost at the mention of home. But Steve just smirked like he was in on the joke, looking adorable and like he was ready once more to tackle whatever life threw his way next. It was always a good look on him.

It made it so easy to believe everything would be all right.

And at least this wasn't any world ending scenario, so it probably would be, too.

He was allowed to hope, wasn't he?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is getting used to life with Tony Stark, even if it's only going to be temporary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read and comment on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/219619.html).

Over the last few months he'd become somewhat used to spending sleepless nights, but under the circumstances he wished he could at least get another hour or so of sleep. But it was no use. He was wide awake and thoughts about all that had happened to him were reeling in his head. 

He might as well get up and find something to occupy his time. Normally he’d be taking his morning run right about now, but he wasn’t sure that it would be a good idea to leave the house on his own under the circumstances. It was strange to realize that they hadn’t even talked about this part of his predicament. Perhaps both of them had simply been unwilling to think about the possibility of him hanging around long enough for this to even become an issue. Steve sure hadn’t, not when he first arrived, when the thought of a parallel universe with parallel-Avengers and a parallel-Tony had been new and stunning and more than he could process and the thought of being stuck in a place that did and didn’t feel like home all over again had occupied most of his thoughts.

But he was ready to cope with this situation now. If he was going to stay here, he needed to find a way to be useful. Sitting around wasn’t something he was good at and he’d done too much of it before he ever got here. And at the very least he did not want to be stuck inside the house indefinitely. Part of him was ready to admit, that his own refusal to mit parallel-him was why there was a need for secrecy in the first place.

And while he was ready to cope with the situation he was stuck in now, he still didn’t feel comfortable to face that particular part of the problem. 

It was enough to cope with this right here, the strangeness of getting up and finding yourself in yet another unfamiliar place. He felt uncomfortable to slip on the unfamiliar clothes to wear that Tony was lending him, even if the fit perfectly, even stranger to walk out into the silence of Tony’s big house and ponder what to do with himself right here and now.

He was still surprised by how new and not lived in the place felt and looked. It reminded him of Tony’s Tower in New York and how it had looked so clean and unfinished when he’d first set foot in it to get upstairs to Loki. But the scale of this newness was different. There was something missing here that said this place had been chosen as carefully as every little detail of the Stark Tower building. It wasn’t just that there was no big red lettered “STARK” written all over it. Tony was living here already, he had pictures of his friends all around the house, and still it didn’t feel like Tony had actually made it _his_ yet. 

Because he had nothing else to do he wandered into the kitchen and then further into the living room. To his surprise he found Tony asleep, sitting in front of the couch, his head resting on the narrow table at an uncomfortable angle, his cheek sticking to one of the different papers that were strewn across the shiny surface, his tablet resting beside him. He hesitated. 

He knew he shouldn’t intrude.

But he couldn’t move away.

Unsure of what to do with himself at this early hour, stuck in a world that he didn't have much information about, he sat down in the armchair to think about this instead, staring at his only connection to this world - now sleeping and not of much help to him. It was easier when Tony was _talking_ , making Steve feel like he belonged here, because this situation was even more outside of his frame of experience than anything else: Tony Stark asleep on his living room floor, like he’d sloppily fallen asleep while working.

He needed to stop staring and, even more so, stop to read something into every little detail. He needed to find something to do. Desperately. Before he lost his mind.

The training room upstairs was an option, of course, but Steve had a feeling that he would end up spending a lot of time there in the next few days if he'd not get home soon. Because what else was he going to do? Learn the engineering necessary for dimensional travel? He knew he’d be lucky if he’d gras the basics in weeks. Before SHIELD had given him the opportunity to return to active service, he'd already sat around too much of the time, visiting gyms and pounding sandbags to have something to do at all. There had been enough of that to last him a lifetime with everyone giving him helpful tips about taking it slow and catching up “to the new times”. He wasn't sure he could take any more of this useless sitting around and getting _used_ to things. It was hard enough not feeling like a relic as it was,

And it wasn’t just that. He was simply not good at standing by and watching other people do the ehavy lifting. Even when he’d been plain Steve Rogers from Brooklyn without the serum in his veins, he’d been terribly at it. He needed to do something, needed something to keep his mind occupied. And the fact that there was a whole parallel _world_ to his own that had a Steve, a Tony and Avengers just like them but _not_ was really harder to take when he had time to himself and his mind could go in circles. It needed to stop. With a sigh he leaned back in the modern looking, but surprisingly comfortable armchair and focused back on his host.

Tony was still fast asleep.

Steve couldn’t decide if the nice thing to do would be to wake him, so he could move from the uncomfortable position in front of the narrow table, or to let the exhausted man sleep. It didn’t look like he’d caught much sleep at all, working on the clean energy car he’d mentioned and most likely also on a way back for Steve.

That was when he caught himself staring intently at Tony’s relaxed features. It only now occurred to him that although Tony had been very open and seemingly relaxed around him since he’d arrived here - at least most of the time - he only now looked completely vulnerable and open. Only in sleep did he let his guard down, even around Steve. It made Steve feel like the worst kind of intruder. He’d watched Bucky sleep like this lifetimes ago, when he’d been guarding his sleep, but Tony and himself didn’t share that kind of connection. He shouldn’t be here.

But on the other hand it was strangely heart-warming to see that even someone like Tony Stark could look so innocent and relaxed when his body finally made him stop and get some rest. He had to wonder if this was just this particular Tony, or if this was true across universes. Because the only time he’d seen his own Tony Stark go quiet had been when he’d been completely exhausted after a battle and it hadn’t given Steve any reason to smile and watch and wonder about it then. He’d simply been too exhausted himself and too worried about Stark at that particular time. But there was no need to worry here and now and with this Tony, who had simply fallen asleep in the middle of doing something. Still, Steve couldn’t stop wondering how often he pushed himself too hard, how often he fell asleep while ideas were racing through his head or whether this was all Steve’s fault for messing up his life by turning up on his doorstep.

Natasha had mentioned that their Tony at home was crazy about his work, that he could vanish inside his workshop for days, but it was still hard to imagine the man he’d met to just fall asleep in the middle of work instead of seeking the comfort of his own bed. He pondered that for a moment, his eyes still glued to Tony’s face. How many people got to see this? The partner Tony had talked to on the phone? His friends? Pepper?

Part of him yearned for a sketchbook, a piece of paper and a pencil. Which was strange in itself, because he hadn’t touched a pencil for anything but jotting down notes since he’d woken up from the ice. Damn, he hadn’t even had time to think about drawing since he’d made it his mission to be accepted into the army, since he’d ended up being the only supersoldier coming out of Operation Rebirth, only occasionally doodling into a notebook while he was in the field.

Now suddenly the urge to put lines onto paper was there and he hadn't even realized how much he'd missed it. Yeah, he really wanted to capture the tranquility of this scene in a way that a photo just couldn’t. He remembered that he still had the Stark phone with him and thought about just taking a picture and drawing it later, but that seemed like an even bigger invasion of Tony’s privacy.

But now that he was thinking of it: he really needed to find a good moment to ask him for a picture. Maybe Pepper or Reed could take one with the two of them together before they sent him back, so that he could show it to his team back home. He wanted them to see this: the other Tony. Blue eyed, young Tony who had been Iron Man for years, who was so obviously Tony Stark - but different.

Suddenly the startlingly blue eyes he’d been thinking of blinked open, slowly and like Tony wasn’t coming awake all at once, and Steve was too transfixed to look away as they suddenly met his. “Steve,” Tony practically _sighed_ , his voice rough with sleep, his eyes fixing on Steve's face like it was the face of an old friend, immediately trusting and sure that everything was okay. A tired, but happy smile graced his lips suddenly and Steve stopped breathing in surprise. He certainly had never seen _that_ expression before.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat, caught of guard by the emotions that welled up in his chest and by those he couldn’t quite recognize in Tony’s eyes. There was probably no reason to feel this self-conscious and awkward right now. It wasn't like he'd sneaked into Tony's bedroom to watch him sleep or anything inappropriate like that. “Seems you fell asleep in the middle of something. I didn't want to wake you, but I'm not used to this place and didn't know what to do with myself.” He knew that was more information than necessary, considering that Tony wasn't even fully awake yet.

Predictably, Tony's smile dimmed a little as his eyes settled on the specs on the table, vanishing completely as he moved his shoulders, awkwardly, probably in pain. A hand came up to massage his neck. “Yeah, right,” he said and his eyes settled back on Steve, as if he was only now realizing that he was here - or who he was exactly. He rubbed at his eyes with one hand and sighed. “I hope you slept more comfortably than I did, Steve.”

“I did. Thank you.” He smirked a bit. Quite frankly, he'd not taken any Stark man for the type to sleep plastered over their living room table. Although god only knew what Howard actually got up to when he was in party mood in Paris. “I made use of an especially comfortable bed, thanks to you. You should have gone up to your room, Tony. I’m sure you do have an adequate bed up there, too.”

“Hmm,” Tony said, still rubbing at his neck. “Yeah, I wanted to, I think. Then an idea hit me halfway to the stairs.”

And that was just exactly what Steve had expected. It was charming, that Tony could be sidetracked by his own genius brain. He wasn’t just someone who happened to design fancy stuff to further his own fame and make even more money, he was passionate about his inventions and innovations and the ideas kept coming. He was someone driven by his own scientific mind, even when sometimes he seemed like the “average” rich person. That his work would be more important to him than comfort had not ever before crossed Steve’s mind, but now it all made sense. It was so easy to bring what he knew about either Tony together to form the whole picture of a brilliant man who had some issues with keeping his own mind in check. “I’ll make sure you go to bed tonight,” Steve promised and grinned.

Tony, who had been busy moving his shoulders to get the muscles to relax, froze, his eyes snapping back to him. He stared at him, apparently speechless for once. Perhaps he really hadn’t been completely awake yet. “You make that sound like a promise,” Tony said under his breath and pulled himself up from the floor, letting himself fall back onto the sofa. “Are you getting bossy now? Because I’m kind of used to that, actually. Won’t get you far. I’ve had years to work out how to deal with you.”

Steve couldn’t stop grinning, even at that implication. “I’m not the only one who’s good at bossing people around, _Mr. Stark_.”

“Ah,” Tony said and looked away, his face taking on a playfully innocent expression that made it even more funny, and said in fake understanding: “Tell me about it. Thor can be a little overbearing. Asgardians, huh? Think royalty means anything in America.”

They grinned at each other, as if they were sharing an old joke between them, then Tony yawned and stretched his arms. When he leaned back, finally looking awake and like he was ready to take on the world again, he frowned at Steve in the armchair. “Did something happen? Really no trouble sleeping?”

Remembering what he’d been thinking just before Tony had woken up, he tried not to appear flustered by the question and gave Tony another slightly crooked smile. “I get up early. It’s an army thing I suppose. I usually…”

“Go for a run,” Tony finished, watching him with a hint of realization entering his eyes. “Ah, I should have known, Steve. I'm sorry.”

He shrugged, not even astounded anymore that Tony could read him – or the other him - so well. Bucky had been able to read him like that once upon a time, had known him well enough to know what he was thinking. Peggy had been like that too, close to the end. “It’s not like you told me to stay put. I just wasn’t sure it was okay to go out under the circumstances.” After all they had gone to some length to make sure nobody would see or recognize Steve in New York.

“Man, would the house in the middle of Lake Washington come in handy right about now, huh?” Tony said more than actually asked and shook his head. “But I gave that away… to the foundation, which means the Avengers, really… when I gave them pretty much everything I owned. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway, but, damn, what did they do with it? It was a brilliant house.” Seeing Steve’s startled look he immediately stopped himself. “I’m sorry. That’s too much information, is it? Exactly the kind of thing you don’t want to hear about…”

He hadn’t even been thinking about _that_ , focused as he was on Tony and not himself at the moment. It was still hard to believe, but of course he knew the other him was out there, living a life that could be his own or very similar to what his life could one day be like - and he wanted nothing to do with it, felt like he’d been sent to the future and now needed to do anything in his power to preserve his own existence. It was irrational and he could just imagine Peggy smile at him fondly, saying: “Don’t be dramatic, Steve. You’re always so dramatic.” He couldn’t shake the feeling of dread whenever he remembered that he wasn’t the only Steve Rogers around here. But while anything that had to do with the other Steve made him uncomfortable, seemed like a very tangible _threat_ , he honestly wanted to know more about Tony.

“It’s okay,” he mumbled, feeling like a hypocrite, hoping like mad that Tony wasn’t like Peggy in the regard of seeing right through him when he was being unreasonable. Tony’s eyebrows actually drew together as if he was thinking this over and for all but a second Steve felt sure he'd been figured out. Or maybe Tony was still thinking about that house that he’d just given away to the Avengers as if it was nothing? Steve had a hard time reading him, precisely because there was too much essential information missing to easily fill in the blanks. And now he really was beginning to feel like an idiot. It had been his decision to tell Tony he was uncomfortable with finding out too much and Tony was going to some length to accommodate him. Just because he was now curious about Tony he couldn't just change the parameters of their agreement.

“You do realize that it's okay to go out? You're not a threat and nobody is looking for you. You're not a prisoner or on the run.” Tony stated it slowly, as if he wanted Steve to listen carefully. Then he got up and jotted something down on a piece of paper in the living room area. It was a long number and Steve realized it was the access code for the front door. “It will check your fingerprints when you give in the code, but you probably have Steve’s, so let’s hope you’ll be able to get back in on your own,” he said with a crooked smile.

“Wouldn't people recognize me?” he asked, mulling over the fact that apparently _Commander_ Rogers also had access to Tony’s home. Was that how far his position reached or was that just because they were friends?

“Are you planning on parading around the shield? If you go out with that, then yeah, people will probably have a hard time overlooking it or the fact that you look a lot like who you are. Apart from that I think you should be fine if you keep your head down. People very often don't see what's right in front of them. Believe me. Take away the beard and people won't notice it's Tony Stark. Proved fact.”

That last thing sounded like a ridiculous joke and he smiled, but Tony actually looked serious. “So it's safe for me to I go out?”

Tony shrugged. “As safe as it gets. And you _can_ take care of yourself, right, Captain America?”

Apparently this was entirely up to him and what he wanted to do. He nodded firmly. The prospect of being here long enough to develop a morning routine was disconcerting, but at this point the least of his worries. Between getting home and realizing that someone had tried to get rid of him, he really had enough on his plate. If nothing else he had to trust Clint that he’d been quick to react. Whatever had happened after he'd been zapped away, he was sure that Clint had handled the situation. Hawkeye was a professional who could take care of himself. And there was nothing that Steve could do from here to help him or even to figure out what had gone wrong exactly. It was probably okay to just focus on getting home and enjoy the little vacation while it lasted for now.

Even if this vacation didn’t really feel like one.

Tony yawned and got up to stretch his back a bit. Steve's gaze followed him as he padded over to the kitchen on bare feet. “I really need coffee,” he mumbled.

“How about breakfast?” Steve asked and pushed himself out of the armchair to follow. “Should help you wake up just as well.”

“Urgh,” Tony said. “I'm not good with coordination before I get some coffee into me. But you're probably hungry.” His hands were busy at the coffee maker and the smell of freshly made coffee, bitter and strong, hit his nose, telling Steve that coffee had already been prepared. Had Tony been on his way up to the bed as he said when he'd decided to go on working in the living room, or had he been on his way to the kitchen to make coffee? How much sleep did the man actually go on? Was Steve's being here causing him sleepless nights?

“We can probably manage sandwiches or something, if you're hungry. I suppose there are cornflakes in the cupboard. Do you even like cornflakes? You liked the bagels, right?”

Steve followed the outstretched hand to look inside the cupboard, surprised to find two family packs, one open, of his favorite brand. He stared at the colorful packages for a long moment, so surprised by the familiarity, and smiled. “At least the cornflakes seem to be the same. That's a relief.”

Tony looked at him quizzically. “Crazy world, huh?”

“Do you want some?”

Tony shook his head. “I'm not really a cornflakes person.”

Which would make a lot more sense if Steve hadn't just found cornflakes in his kitchen. But then he remembered the conversation he'd overheard the day before. There was another person who was part of Tony's life, even if he wasn't here at the moment. And maybe _he_ was a cornflakes person.

“What do you usually have for breakfast?”

“Whatever's on the menu,” Tony offered with a grin. “I used to live the sort of life where someone made me breakfast every morning. But Jarvis is stuck making breakfast for a bunch of Avengers now.” He shrugged.

“JARVIS?” Steve asked, trying to imagine how an AI could actually _make_ breakfast, but decided that Tony was probably not talking about the AI literally making the breakfast, just providing it.

“I could use a butler around here,” Tony muttered. “Too bad I lost him to the more high maintenance household. Hmmmm. I’m really beginning to miss the Lake Washington house.”

Steve, feeling much better about this morning already, and watching Tony take a sip from his coffee made his way over to the fridge to see if there was any milk in it and found much more than that. “There are eggs,” he informed Tony. “I'm not a certified cook, but I'm not bad either. How about omelet or pancakes?”

“Can't ask you to make me breakfast.” Tony's expression was bordering on comically horrified. “We barely know each other.”

“Actually you seem to know me much better than I know you, Mr. Stark. And it's the least I can do.” He grinned.

For some reason Tony was frowning as if he wasn't sure that accepting the offer was a good idea at all. “Oookay,” he said. “I did not see that coming.”

Not sure if he'd done anything wrong he asked: “Something the matter?”

Tony shook his head. “No, it's just... you're so... _you_. I don't know what else to say.”

“I'm going to make myself some eggs, if that's okay.”

The blue eyes were following as he made his way through the kitchen, and Tony made a gesture that told him to go ahead and look into the cupboards. The fact that someone was going to sift through his kitchen seemed not to face him, but the exchange from before had left a hint of thoughtfulness on his handsome face.

“Want some?” Steve asked, to get Tony's attention. “You probably have a busy day ahead of you.”

“And coffee is not breakfast, mum. Yes, I get it. Eggs it is.” There was no hint of annoyance in his voice, just the slightest hint of exasperation and amusement. Steve didn't need to be told twice, happy now, that he'd found something to do with himself. Finding all he needed was easy. Apparently Tony hadn't been kidding when he'd said that he hadn't been living here for long. None of the pans looked like they'd been used before. The stove didn't look like it either. When he questioningly looked at Tony, he just shrugged. “Cooking isn't exactly top priority as things are.”

He had snatched his tablet computer and was typing something, while Steve's attention was on their breakfast. He found some bacon to add to the mix and wondered what exactly would have happened to all the food in the fridge if he hadn't ended up stranded here. “Pepper usually makes sure I eat something,” Tony said when he noticed Steve sifting through the fridge with a frown. “Contrary to popular belief I can manage bacon and eggs on my own without supervision. Sometimes.”

Which Steve had to admit was a funny thought. Would Iron Man rather fry his egg with a repulsor ray than using a pan on the fancy stove? He could easily imagine it and also why Ms. Potts was not at all keen on that thought.

Tony didn't stop working all through breakfast, occasionally stopping to make small talk or ask a question. Steve didn't mind. With all that Tony had on his plate he was surprised he hadn't run off to work already. “You don't need to keep me company if you'd rather work,” Steve told him and smiled encouragingly. “I'll find something to do.”

Startled, Tony nodded. “I know, Steve.” But he made no move to get up from the table as if he'd rather stay here. But another message came in on the phone and then another. Tony immediately picked up the typing again and threw a sheepish smile in his direction. “I can work from here,” he said. “For the most part.”

“I can see that,” Steve said, amused. He had poured himself his own mug of coffee and was watching Tony work with interest.

“I can help with the dishes,” Tony mumbled, when Steve started to clear the table. He was about to tell him to sit down again and let him do it, when Tony froze mid motion and looked over his shoulder as if he was listening to something. With a nearly vacant expression that gave Steve the chills he picked up his phone and looked at something, then he shook himself and looked at Steve. “Rhodey's in trouble. Some military grade drones are running rampant for no apparent reason.”

The way his body language had changed made sense in light of that, but Steve was confused as to how exactly he'd just gotten the information. Tony had tensed up _before_ looking at his phone and something about that just seemed off.

“I need to go, Steve. This is not something he should be handling on his own.”

Shaking himself a little to focus on Tony and not on what he'd just seen, he nodded. “Yeah, I get that. Go!” The strategists part of him wondered what exactly was going on. Was this routine? Was Rhodey somewhere in a war zone requesting backup? Or had something else come through a portal like himself or aliens attacking New York? He knew this wasn’t his mission, but not knowing never sat well with him.

Tony lingered just that tiny second longer than he should, not exactly meeting Steve's eyes, but watching him and then mechanically nodded and went, nearly jogging towards the door. Steve wondered where he stored the armor. With everything he'd seen he imagined this Tony was a bit ahead of his Tony when it came to the technology that went into the Iron Man armor and could call it to himself. Back home that had been a recent enhancement.

The door fell shut behind Tony and Steve was left alone with the dishes.

At least he’d gotten the man to eat something before he ran off to fight god knows what. If that was indeed what was going on.

He finished up in the kitchen, carefully putting all the things he’d used back where he’d taken them from and then surveyed the now clean and orderly kitchen. The realization that the room looked like none of this morning had ever happened made him uncomfortable suddenly and he walked into the living room space, feeling better when he noticed that Tony’s papers and the tablet were still strewn across the table.

It put his mind momentarily at ease, before he realized he was essentially back where he’d started out at: At a loss as what to do with himself.

Just this time the big house was empty and there was no Tony asleep somewhere.

Alone in a house where he was only a temporary guest, Steve once again had no idea how to proceed. He turned on the TV, telling himself that he was looking for the news, but at least some part of himself knew it was to fill the silence with noise until he felt comfortable again. It was childish and irrational, but even if people didn’t want to believe it sometimes: Captain America was only just human and some of the things he’d gone through recently would have driven others crazy. He didn’t mind giving in to his irrational impulses if it helped him keep his grip on reality. Whatever reality that ended up being.

There was nothing on the news that looked like it needed a team of Avengers or SHIELD to intervene. He kept one of the news channels on for a while, grew uncomfortable when it shifted from business news to talks about the presidential election. He zapped away and then completely gave up, and turned it off.

Maybe it was time to take that run after all.

When he got up his gaze lingered on one of Tony’s colorful team pictures and the brightly smiling man in the Captain America uniform who had his arm thrown over Iron Man’s shoulders.

He’d give anything to be home again. On more even footing. Not feeling like he was on the run from himself.

* * *

He took a walk instead of a run, explored the area a bit. Tony’s house was sitting there pretty isolated on a batch of otherwise empty land and Steve followed the street and got his bearings around the neighborhood a bit before returning. He wouldn’t even have to worry about meeting people if he went early enough. There was enough space to go for a run unnoticed tomorrow. Or maybe tonight, if nothing else came up. At this point he had to admit to himself that he had to be thinking ahead at least a little.

How likely was it that he’d be home by this evening if Tony didn’t even get to work on the machine that was supposed to send him back? Realistically he knew he was looking at staying here for about a week or so.

The access code worked and after a brief check of his fingerprints identifying him as “Steve Rogers” he let himself back into the house. The idea that he and the other Steve were that similar down to the fingerprints was another thing he really didn’t want to dwell on. He picked up his shield in the living room, feeling a bit more at ease instantly and then looked around for something to keep his mind from wandering again. At this time of day the house was flooded by soft light from outside and he liked the tranquil atmosphere. With what he knew about Tony he had to wonder though where in this house he would have fancy dinner parties or the like. Maybe not in _this_ house at all? There wasn’t even a bar around as far as he could see.

He found a stack of books in the guest room and took them to the living room.

Trying to distract himself he read the first few pages of a detective novel that didn’t pull him in. When he noticed that his eyes had glazed over and he’d been reading the last two paragraphs over and over again without taking in any of the meaning he gave up and threw it down on the table, where it fell right next to the papers Tony had left behind.

He was about to get up and find something else to do when the door opened again with a beep and Tony stepped in, wearing a business suit that he’d definitely not been wearing when he went out and carrying a couple of white plastic shopping bags that were filled to the brim. When he saw Steve by the sofa he smiled, looking to all the world like nothing out of the ordinary had happened all day.

Steve eyed him suspiciously. “Can I ask what happened?” 

“Punched some rogue robots in space before they could destroy a manned space station,” Tony said and rolled his eyes, grinning sardonically. “You know? The usual stuff...”

He was about to laugh, when he realized that hadn’t been a joke. “You okay?”

Tony shrugged and nodded. “Faced much worse. I think Rhodey called me in because I’m the tech person to call for these things - and because he wanted me to know what was going down. Just another Tuesday. Is it Tuesday? I thought it wasn’t, but it must be.” When he’d walked over slowly he put one of the shopping bags down on the table, his eyes falling briefly on the book cover of the detective novel. “Where’d you find that?”

He nodded towards the guest room and Tony frowned as if he had no idea what something like it was doing in this house. “Next time take my tablet,” he said and picked it up from the table to shove it at Steve. “Whole libraries on there. Aaaand, I brought you this.” He indicated the shopping bag and then walked into the kitchen with the rest of what he’d bought.

Steve blinked at it, unsure, watching Tony walk away to the kitchen and took it as a sign that he was supposed to look into the bag on his own. He pulled it closer to take a peek and then froze in surprise. “Art supplies?”

“I wasn’t sure it’s any use to you,” Tony said sheepishly, “but you and Steve share so many traits that I thought it might be a good bet that you…”

“Thank you,” he said, his throat constricting suddenly. “Thanks.” He hadn’t even been thinking about drawing until just this morning - and here he was, this Tony Stark who knew him so well, and chose _today_ to gift him with something that wasn’t overpriced technology or a key to his own apartment. It was eerie and his thoughts went back to that morning and the thought of rendering Tony’s sleeping form on paper in some way. He found a sketch book and held it in his hands, just staring. The question if Tony was hiding mind-reading abilities was on the tip of his tongue, but he really didn’t want to talk about the thoughts he’d had when he thought of drawing.

It was touching.

A nice gesture towards someone who was only a guest, a universe hopping accident.

It reminded him of Tony’s covert way of reaching out to all of the Avengers after the battle, obviously knowing them better after just meeting them than he would let on.

When Tony walked back over, carrying two small PET bottles of water, he was still holding the sketchbook in his hands. “Steve used to carry one like that around,” he explained and then shrugged and looked away, as if he wasn’t sure he should have said that.

It was still strange to hear his own name dropped like that, still strange to think of the other him, but at least this comparison wasn’t uncomfortable.

“I used to have one like it, too,” he admitted, not going into details about how he had no idea where it was now. Had Peggy taken it from his things? Had it been stored somewhere? Was it going to pop up in a museum somewhere? He realized that lots of his stuff had actually ended up in museums, he just tried to not actually think about it too hard. “Does he still..?” the question died on his lips before he could finish it. The black cover of the sketchbook had his complete attention, his fingers reverently sliding along the side of it as if he’d never seen anything more enrapturing in the world, but in truth he was just avoiding Tony, who was suddenly standing between him and the kitchen again and was watching him. He could _feel_ him watching.

The silence dragged on until Tony moved to sit down on the other end of the sofa and said: “He still draws. Sometimes. Paints, even. Not as often as he used to, I think. Time is a commodity sometimes, with everything he’s responsible for these days.”

“Oh,” Steve said and tried to mull over how exactly that made him feel. “I don’t either,” he finally admitted. “Maybe I should.”

Tony shrugged. “Maybe you should.”

“Thank you,” he said and finally found the courage to look at Tony and not be judged a hypocrite. “I think I know what to do with myself now.” He couldn’t muster up a grin, but he met Tony’s gaze and was glad when Tony nodded and patted him on the shoulder in an amiable way.

“I just thought it would be nice,” he said. “Sitting around here all day should give you some time while I put the arc together.”

“Yeah,” he said and swallowed. It wasn’t like he had to even think about what he wanted to try and render onto paper, remembering the whimsical moment from this morning. “It’s really… I was thinking about drawing something this morning. It’s…” He’d nearly said: _It’s eerie how well you know me._ Instead he floundered and then said: “Thank you. It’s like you knew without me asking for it.”

Tony shrugged. “That’s what friends are for.” He got up again to walk away towards the other bags he brought. “I also bought you some new clothes. Or actually someone did. I’m sure it wasn’t Pepper. But Bambi knows how to get these things done, so I suppose Pepper set her on it.”

“You were at the company?”

“Just to see how things were going and making sure they won’t need my aggravating presence for the rest of day. Picked up some stuff, too.”

“Thank you,” he said again, beginning to sound like a broken record. “You’ll have to let me make dinner for you in exchange.”

“Deal,” Tony said and grinned. “It’s going to be nice to have you around the house. Speaking of which: I actually have some work for you.”

He perked up immediately, glad that Tony was asking him to do something for him after the man had extended his hospitality and opened his house to him, offering him help and friendship and now bringing him gifts.” Yes, of course!”

“Don’t be so eager, Steve,” Tony said with a lopsided grin. “It’s going to be boring and dirty and you’ll regret it.”

The boredom and uncertainty of the morning still fresh in his mind he silently disagreed. “Just tell me what you need?”

After making a short detour to get dressed into something better suited for the workshop - which turned out to be a white t-shirt with the Resilient company logo that Steve had seen on the mugs in the kitchen, too, and worn out jeans -, Tony just motioned for him to follow and they made their way towards the stairs that led to Tony’s workshop together. “The workshop is new. I didn’t have enough time yet, to really break it in. And I do end up using the one at Avengers Tower more often than not anyway.” They arrived at a huge metal door and Tony opened it for them quickly. It looked more like a vault door than the entrance to workshop to Steve, but inside it was a well lit huge room with a work space close to the entrance and equipment propped up in different locations. There were two Iron Man armors in glas cases at the back that looked like no design he’d ever seen before. Boxes and crates were standing around taking up space.

“I’ll need room to build the arc and I’ve decided that down here is the best place to do it. I’ll let Reed know that we’ll have to send you back from here and I’ve made sure that the company can provide us with a repulsor grade generator that should provide us with enough energy, probably the day after tomorrow.”

“Oh,” he said. “Won’t that take away from their work time?”

“We work clean energy, so looking into that is kind of what we do when we’re not working on the car. The car, you know, it’s our flashy start-up project, that’s supposed to tell the world that we can do it. It’s not our only project.”

“Oh, okay,” he said and looked around. “Where do I start?”

Tony chuckled. “I have no idea,” he said and the gestured at one of the heavy work benches. “Let’s get that free and out of here.”

They worked side by side for at least two hours, Tony giving him instructions and packing and unpacking sensitive equipment. Steve had no idea what half of it even was. He had the niggling feeling that Tony was humoring him here, that in fact Iron Man could have easily done all the heavy lifting on his own. But he wasn’t going to complain if Tony wanted him to feel involved in this. He was feeling much more at ease now that he had something to do.

He was going to make dinner, he decided. And breakfast. And whatever else he could to quietly thank Tony for what he was doing.

Into their third hour of pushing thing around Tony left him to put some of the final crates away while he set up his main work area for the building of the arc in the middle of the room. He ended up right in front of the two armored suits in their cases at the back of the room. The designs were familiar, but there were some details that were practically jarring. The masks in particular were very different, but also the arms and legs looked very different on inspection. One had a mask with a broad mouth slit and the upper part of the mask formed two little spikes pointing upwards. Steve wasn’t sure if it was supposed to mean something or if it was meant to emphasize the mask, but he found it hard to imagine seeing this mask on Iron Man in a fight. Tony went for sleek and streamlined so often that this playful detail seemed cute, not serious. The other suit was red and silver instead of the familiar red and gold. “They’re pretty old,” Tony informed him from where he was doing something with a screwdriver in hand, not even looking up at Steve.

“You don’t use them?”

“Not if I don’t have to. I was thinking of stripping these two for parts, actually.”

“We’re not moving them, right?”

“No, they stay inside the security zone of the workshop. I sleep better when I know where my tech is. I suppose I could store them with the others at Resilient if we really need even more room.”

Steve nodded, sure that Tony knew what he was doing. “You store the armor at your company? The one you’re using now?”

Tony’s head shot up to stare, apparently his mind was more on whatever he was doing than on Steve and his questions, because it took his eyes a long moment to really focus on him and then comprehension dawned as he realized what Steve had been asking. “Ah, no, that one is wherever I am. It’s a bit complicated. But I can get armored up anytime I need to.”

That made sense, of course, he had just been wondering about where exactly Tony was storing it. They hadn’t taken one with them on their flight back, had they? Had it been on the plane? Could he just call it like his Tony could now call his own suit?

He started moving the final table out of the way, moving to stack it with the others along the wall.

“That one can stay,” Tony said. “Might be nice for you to have your own workplace.”

“Me?” he asked confused.

“Drawing? Reading? You don’t have to keep me company, of course, I’m not especially chatty when I’m building my way out of a problem.” Tony shrugged as if it was nothing to talk about. “Up to you. Stack it or leave it where it is.”

He stared at the table and then put it back into its original position. Even if he hoped he wouldn’t be around for long now, he’d rather have the option to not be alone all day.

Tony nodded to himself, but Steve imagined it had more to do with the small circuit he was working on than anything else.

* * *

He made sure Tony ate something for dinner, made them sandwiches and a quick salad, because Tony wouldn’t stop working. The man who had been his near constant companion since he’d arrived had always been easy to talk to, but now he was so focused and caught up in his own head that he barely made any conversation - and when he did it wasn’t directed at Steve, but mostly at himself or the machines.

It was a stark contrast to the man with the dazzling smile who joked around, but it was still all very Tony. “This is going to work,” Tony muttered. “It worked before.” His shoulders were tense and he was biting his lip in frustration, as he went through some of his calculations again. Steve had noticed a while ago that he was holding his left shoulder in a way that meant there had been some strain. Maybe he’d been injured during the fight after all.

Steve knew he wasn’t talking to him. “You should rest. Get some sleep. You punched robots and went shopping for me and you can’t build this thing all in one day.” Also he knew that even if Tony managed to have it ready by morning, which he doubted, Reed had yet to contact them. Without his data they wouldn’t be able to send Steve home, so there was no need to rush it tonight.

Tony just hummed and reached for a welder. “It’s okay, Steve,” he said. “I’m just finishing up this one thing.”

It was said with such an obvious note of distraction that Steve wasn’t even sure Tony knew he’d said it. He pondered his options, before nodding. There was no use in arguing this point tonight. He’d make sure Tony would take a rest tomorrow and if he still gave signs of injury he’d take care of that then. To his amusement Tony didn’t even seem aware of him wishing him a good night and slipping out of the workshop. 

Back in the guest room he took his time to unpack all the art supplies, lined up the assortment of drawing pencils and charcoals, another sketch pad and papers. He even found a square grey kneaded rubber eraser still wrapped in plastic that he inspected for a moment, and a pencil sharpener. He grinned. If he’d gone looking to buy these things himself would maybe not have picked all of this out, but it seemed that Tony had at least some of an idea of what he would need. And this was more than he needed.

He’d find a way to put it to use.

Over the next two days the machine grew, Tony fell into intense silences as he worked and Steve felt the need to leave him to it for most of it, surprised by the intensity of the process and determination that went into building the apparatus that would send him home soon. He actually sat down and made a sketch of an intensely focused Tony Stark wearing a soiled tank top and having messy hair as he worked. Not sure how best to start he just tried to fall into it, sketching with an unsure hand and not sure where he wanted this to go, until suddenly he did and the lines started coming, his hand growing surer with every stroke. Tony caught him at it and grinned.

Even Steve had to admit the result wasn’t half bad. Maybe he had gotten a bit rusty, but not as badly as he’d feared.

He made them sandwiches and brought down bottles of water, checked that Tony had enough coffee to go on, but grew nervous when the man didn’t stop and turn in for the night again. “You need to sleep, Tony,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, heard it all before.” Tony waved him away unconcerned. “I need to call Reed.” It was nearing 1 am and as far as Steve had gathered Reed had a family to care for, but he wasn’t sure how to politely point this out to Tony, who was still talking. “And we need a custom made part for that,” Tony added looking at the assorted parts that he’d lined up on the work table. Steve had no idea what it was, other than it being metal. So Steve left him to it, surveying the growing machine on his way out. The base platform was the size of the one that had sent him here, but above it Tony was crafting a roundish arc. Cables were hanging from all sides of it, leading nowhere. He’d seen Tony look at the computer projected specs for the completed thing and knew that it would look like a free standing door to another world. It was like something right out of a science-fiction novel.

But then - so was the rest of his life.

He found Tony curled up on the living room sofa the next morning, still messed up and having smudges of something oily on his cheek. It was even more adorable - which was not a word he’d use to describe it to his face, of course - than when he’d found him sleeping plastered all over the living room table. When he’d get home to his own team he’d make an effort to meet the Ms. Potts that was with Tony and ask her if her man also had the tendency to fall asleep all over the furniture. Maybe not where Tony could hear it, though.

He had come down because he was about to go out for his run and had no intention of waking Tony before he had to. Breakfast could wait until he’d rested some more. The thought of breakfast suddenly made him falter. Developing a routine in a parallel universe should have been more scary, but now that it had just happened, it wasn’t. At this point it didn’t even really bother him anymore.

Perhaps it was high time to get home, before he’d miss this place just as much as the other one.

* * *

The second day into “their” little building project, Tony was much more chatty and relaxed. Apparently things were going well. “I’ll need to fix up the energy input and I’ll write a better safety protocol when the main arc is up and running, but give me another day or two and it should be fine. We'll get the little transference problem worked out too. This is more Reed’s specialty than mine, but damn it if this won't be a totally gorgeous and workable dimension portal that won't rip space and time apart and bring the apocalypse.”

“Can that happen?” Steve asked, feeling more than a little uneasy with the thought.

“Reality isn’t something we should just play around with,” Tony said softly. “I trust someone like Reed to know what they’re doing and there would be a handful of others maybe, but for the most part dimension hopping isn’t something I usually do. There’s just too much risk involved in this to do it on a whim. No idea if the people who built the platform that sent you here knew what they were doing either and, hey, there’s an uncomfortable thought.”

“Or they knew exactly what they were doing,” Steve said. But then again maybe _not_. He had the sneaking suspicion that if they had known then he’d not stand here and talk about it. If this had been a trap then a lot of planning must have gone into it.

“Or that.” Tony looked grim and Steve felt a thrill at the thought that Tony was feeling protective of him. Steve had already figured out that he was fiercely protective of his friends, of his little start-up company and the people who worked with him there, of the Avengers. He was still surprised that apparently he was working with only a handful of people at Resilient and Tony, following Steve’s own requests for not sharing too much information, never offered any kind of explanation for why he wasn’t involved with a million dollar multi-national corporation, shooing around hundreds of employees. The way he talked about his work had told him that Stark Industries had existed at some point, maybe still did. The new name and message of the new company was really nice though. “Resilient” made him think of Tony every time. Tony who survived terrorists, shrapnel, cardiac arrest, people trying to kill him, aliens, flying a nuclear bomb into space - and recently another terrorist attack. What was a better word to describe Tony Stark?

The screens to his left started blaring an alarm and there was a virtual screen jumping up over the desk to Tony’s right. Steve’s chest tightened, thinking that something must have gone wrong. Tony’s words about the dangers of playing around with inter-dimensional travel were still ringing in his ears. Tony stepped down from the platform immediately, but he wasn’t even looking at any of the monitors. “Tony? Are you there?” an unfamiliar female voice asked from one of the screens. “Little trouble in big New York. We need you.”

“I’m here, Carol. Tell me nobody has wreaked the tower, please.”

“Not yet,” she said tightly. “We have a dinosaur loose in Central Park though. It’s been genetically engineered and it’s angry. And… well, it’s not alone.”

“Not again,” Tony nearly groaned and Steve looked at him quizzically. Were dinosaurs in a major city a common problem in this world? Would aliens become a common one in his? “I’ll have to go,” Tony added and Steve nodded, knowing Tony was talking to him. This was obviously an Avengers problem and he didn’t need to see the pictures of Tony and his team upstairs everyday to realize that Iron Man was an Avenger.

“Don’t _go_ , get your iron clad ass here, pronto,” another female voice said loudly, this one familiar. The cadence was wrong, but the deadpan way it was delivered…

“Charming, Hill,” Tony said and was already halfway to the door. Steve had no idea how the other people on the line could even hear what he was saying. The screens all closed down suddenly and Tony looked over his shoulder apologetically. “I have to run, Steve. No rest for the wicked.”

He nodded and followed Tony out of the lab.

“I really need to break down the wall between the workshop and the garage,” Tony mumbled. “I can’t run up the stairs every time someone needs Iron Man.” Then suddenly, and Steve who had been following him nearly stumbled in surprise, Tony’s clothes just… changed, bleeding away into gold and… Shocked Steve remained rooted to his spot for a whole second and then moved again, following _Iron Man_ up the stairs at a sprint, by the time he was upstairs Tony was already completely encased in his armor, holding the helmet. “Stay safe. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said urgently to Steve. “It shouldn’t take long. I hope it won’t.”

“Okay,” he said, feeling much more secure now that Tony’s suit was around him. Whatever he had just seen, it was incredible. But then this was Tony Stark and whatever he had done to be able to call his suit to him so easily, it must have been born out of the necessity to have the suit close at all times. “Go be, Iron Man. I’ll be right here. It’s not like I have anywhere to go without you.”

Tony smiled at him crookedly, hovering a moment, before stepping out of the door and out. Steve followed, heard the repulsors before he was even at the door and then watched Iron Man fly off.

“Wow,” he said quietly to himself, feeling like he’d gone through all of this before, just under different circumstances. And somehow being left behind was more scary than just running off to help and fight back aliens and sort things out while doing it.

Considering this was the second time he was left behind like this he should have had developed a strategy for this by now. But back in the house alone he once again found himself sitting in the living room at a loss. His whole world it seemed had zeroed in on Tony Stark and his sole objective of getting home. With a sigh he dragged himself up, away from the TV where the news were actually showing pictures of a giant dinosaur running through central park and lots of colorful heroes he'd never seen before in his life trying to divert it from eating or trampling civilians. He double check twice to make sure he wasn't watching some sort of science-fiction B-movie – the sort people were shoving at him when they were making fun of him sometimes. But, no, these were the actual news.

And then suddenly an all too familiar shield flew through the air, a man with a costume similar to his old one, but modified with black stripes, stepped onto the scene. The remote was in his hand before he knew he had picked it up and the TV switched off. Reflexively he checked his shield, leaning against the table, shiny and showing no discernible signs of battle. _That's wasn't me,_ he told himself. _It wasn't even the other me. That was the new Captain America._

The thought stung. It was hard enough to keep track of who he was these days, of what his objectives were or should be... Carrying the shield and making a difference, seemed like the only things he had left. But Commander Rogers had a different life, had had time to feel at home and make connections, had decided somewhere down the line to pass on the shield.

Could he do that?

What would he have left then?

Impulsively he stood up and nearly ran up the stairs to the training room.

He had no idea how much time passed while he was punching the sandbag and then went to the treadmill. After some time he simply felt tired, realized that he must have been at it for hours and decided to take a shower. Hopefully nothing had gone wrong – or any more wrong than dinosaurs in the present already were. Tony would be back soon, stride in like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, just like he had last time.

But what _if_ something happened to Tony? Could he contact Richards? Would Richards contact him?

He was _not_ about to think about that. Tony was Iron Man; he was with a whole huge team of Avengers. Nobody would get to him.

Of course, he still remembered the Hulk catching and unresponsive Iron Man, remembered the moment of frantic fear when he'd thought that Tony Stark had died, sacrificing himself to save New York and maybe the world, remembered his own shock at learning the man had apparently died in a terrorist attack.

_He survived both events and this Tony has a head-start on being Iron Man. He is going to be fine. You're out of your depth here, don't start projecting._

Tony and Reed had been so used to even the weird circumstance that had brought him here. If a Tony from any world would be okay, then surely it would be the one from this world.

He picked up his sketchbook and moved over to the sofa again, not even looking in the direction of the TV. He doodled for a while, not really sure what he even wanted to do, until suddenly he had sketched the Iron Man armor, or at least a helmet. He found himself making a quick sketch of the arc reactor next. He hadn't even really payed attention to Tony's explanations about the shiny disk that was embedded in his chest, but he doubted it was less important than the arc reactor. And he had no idea how this little device worked at all. What he knew came from SHIELD files and listening to Tony and Banner talk fast and in only half-formed sentences with lots of scientific jargon that was beyond him.

A dull far away noise caught his attention and he looked up just as the front door opened. But instead of Tony, it was Pepper Potts who stepped in, carrying a white plastic bag. The smell of food let there be no doubt of what was in the bag. “Chinese?” he asked, getting up to meet her halfway and helping with bags.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I ordered a bit too much,” Ms. Potts said in an apologetic tone. She was dressed in smart business suit and she was cautiously smiling, but it seemed like her heart wasn’t really in it. “I know...” she faltered and then started up again, “the other Steve likes hamburgers and Italian food. Well, and bagels. But that's as much information as I gleaned from Tony about his eating habits... and I have no idea about you.”

He smiled, amused that she was calling this world's Steve “the other Steve”. For some reason that made him feel much better about it all. “It smells good. Tony still in New York?”

“This… this could take a while. He called and said he was okay, but whatever is going on, he might be late.”

“So he asked you to come?”

This time she really smiled and shrugged helplessly. “I would have eaten alone anyway and that’s just sad, huh? Let’s make the best of it.” She made her way to the kitchen. She, didn’t react surprised when he knew exactly where to find plates and tableware, helped him set the table.

He found that he really was quite hungry and Pepper, too, seemed to dig in as if she hadn’t seen food in a while. And food really was so much better with company, but they both found it hard to find safe topics for conversation, so Pepper asked how he and Tony got along and Steve asked her something about where she’d picked up the food, both of them realizing how awkward this whole thing was. Finally their eyes met over the table and they were both laughing, the laughter clearing the air.

“This really is so strange,” she said. “I don’t know Steve as well as Tony does or anything. I hear about him all the time, but I it’s not like we’re friends. He’s important to Tony, though. The last time I saw him in person we were meeting at Tony’s hospital bedside under less than spectacular circumstances...”

“It obviously turned out for the best.” Going by Pepper’s expression it must have been a close call. But only weeks before he’d thought his own Tony dead and the man had come back as if nothing had happened.

“Maybe it did,” Pepper said cautiously, and then smiled.

He looked around for something else to say, trying not to push. “This place is really … normal. For a place that is owned by Tony Stark, I mean. Not counting the place downstairs, it’s a posh house, but not the kind of outrageously Tony that I would have expected.”

“He bought it in a hurry,” Pepper explained. “Or I did, actually. And he hasn’t really had the time to, well, improve it. He hasn’t really put his personal stamp on it yet. Come back in a year and he’ll probably have turned it upside down or moved on altogether.”

“Ah,” he said. “that explains that.”

They were sitting across from each other, like he had been sitting with Tony for their first breakfast together in this kitchen, and that made it easy to watch each other. He smiled, answering the slightly wistful smile gracing Pepper’s lips. “It’s just… I think of him and I’d expect a terribly spacious place with a room just for parties, a bar and floor to ceiling windows.”

“Sounds like Malibu,” she said lightly, but her eyes were narrowed. “I think he doesn’t miss the bar, actually. He still has them in most of the houses he still owns at this point. There are always guests to be entertained, but he...” she faltered again before catching herself, “doesn’t drink. And he doesn’t really keep the stuff around if he can help it.”

“Oh,” Steve said cautiously. There was an unspoken “anymore” hanging in the air between them. His last memories of his father had been clouded by violent outburst brought on by alcohol and he’d spent much of his life trying to forget about that. So many things about Tony Stark only added up when you looked closely. But still to think that this much, much younger version had come out of so many struggles at an earlier age and won… It made sense to him that this Tony would come across to him like he was the more experienced, the calmer - maybe, the word he was looking for was “tempered” - Tony out of the two he knew now. “Not much for parties anymore?”

“Don’t be fooled and don’t let him drag you to a party, Steve,” Pepper said with a mischievous grin. “He does not need alcohol to keep you up all night.”

“That sounds like a wise suggestion. Thank you.” He stared into his food for a silent moment and then added: “He’s quite a handful in any universe, isn’t he?”

Pepper grinned at him, conspiratorially and like she was happy to find he knew his way around Tony Stark. “In my limited experience he’s usually more than he can handle himself.”

That made a lot of sense and he grinned back. He was maybe no expert on the subject yet, but he still hoped that one day he’d know Tony as well as Pepper did. Both Tonys.

His Tony.

“So tell me what you know about your Pepper," she said lightly. "I'm curious. Is she good looking?”

He grinned. It wasn't like he knew Pepper Potts well, but he could at least give her what knew.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commander Rogers really wants to spend time with his lover. That really shouldn't be so complicated, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also read this story and comment on it on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/272064.html). Feel free to friend or contact me there.

Steve knew the Avengers post-mission meeting had broken up less than a minute ago. From the Helicarrier he and Sharon had followed what had been going on in New York and Steve had wrapped up some of the work that had sprung up for him in record time and taken a flying car to make it here before everyone – before Tony - had a chance to leave. He sprinted down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, and then picked up speed ash he ran along the hallway and rounded the final corner. He knew exactly where he was going, knew Avengers Tower like the back of his hand, just like he knew the mansion. Even when he wasn't here that much of the time these days, this was and would always be home.

And there everyone was just as he had expected, just now slipping out of the room. Carol smiled at him and stepped aside as he bounded past her with a wave and into a near empty room. Tony had time to say: “Steve!” before he reached him – was on him – and didn't waste any time but pressed Tony against the wall to kiss him with all the desperate longing that had driven him here at the top of his speed. It had only been a few days, but he'd been thinking of Tony constantly, of the way he'd left him sleeping peacefully upstairs in his – their – bed. It was so rare to catch Tony having a peaceful moment when he actually let his guard down. Normally the man was always on the move, always thinking, always working and building.

He had cherished the moment and thought about it with a fond smile every so often. But memory had proved to be inadequate company.

Steve had missed him. Plain and simple.

He was not ashamed or afraid of coming across as needy, and a bit desperate – and he let it all bleed out into the kiss, as he trapped Tony with his arms and body - because this time things were different. None of his previous relationships had ever exactly been like this. There had been love and passion and missing each other and arguments and misunderstandings, but there had never been _this_ \- this kinship, this yearning, that Steve had not really yet figured out how to describe. And didn't it make so much sense? Tony had always been different; things with Tony had always been special, even when they got complicated.

This was just so right and there was no holding back now; he wanted the world to know and see and be happy for them, because things were finally working out. He and Tony had already wasted so much time. It was natural that he didn't want to waste any more of it.

Whatever you wanted to name what had happened to him, he had died and come back for the second time in his life from being lost to the world and that made some of the disagreements, some of the stubborn struggles between them just seem less important than before.

All that counted was this, here and now, having Tony close, having his hands on him, knowing that this was real and happening and that they were together. He deepened the kiss just as Tony got over his surprised passiveness and opened his mouth to him.

“Please, Steve,” Bucky's voice reached his ears from somewhere to his left, teasing. “You're supposed to have more restraint than this and set the moral example for the rest of us poor sinners. At least wait ‘til we have all properly left the room, before you ravish your boy toy.”

“Don't interfere, kid,” Clint explained with a matter-of-fact tone and a slapping sound followed as if he had slapped Bucky on the shoulder. “Around here we count it as a win when the parents are happy. Everything else you just have to deal with.”

He wanted to grin, but at the same time felt his cheeks turn red. He hadn’t even taken the time to check if they were alone. For a glorious single-minded moment he had only seen Tony and had only thought about how much he had missed him. Tony finally tapped a hand against his chest to make him let up, but then when Steve tried to pull back to let him end the kiss followed him, keeping their lips and mouths together for a little longer – like he wanted to end the kiss, but not. Despite of himself, feeling love well up inside of him that knew no bounds, Steve chuckled, smiled at Tony, feeling warm and elated and happy and playful like he rarely did and had been feeling a lot recently. When he turned, tearing his eyes away from Tony, whose cheeks were flushed deliciously and who was breathing hard, Bucky, dressed in his Captain America uniform, but with the cowl pulled back, was standing in the doorway of the conference room watching the both of them with his best unreadable expression and a raised eyebrow. His teenage sidekick had apparently grown up enough to give him lectures about propriety now.

Steve grinned at him, too. “Don't tell me you never miss Natasha like this,” he said. “Because I already know that's a lie. She misses you too, by the way.”

Bucky frowned slightly then met Tony's eyes past Steve's shoulder, gauging, and shrugged. “Fair enough, Commander Rogers. Enjoy your down time, _sir_.” He gave them a short, mocking salute before dropping out of sight. With an audible bump Tony let his head fall back against the wall. He was looking up at the ceiling for the shortest moment possible before focusing back on Steve. As their eyes met he felt he needed to apologize for just jumping Tony right in front of everyone, because that wasn't really a Steve Rogers thing to do. But then Tony threw him a crooked smile and said: “Hi.”

“Hi,” he repeated and smiled, leaning in again, to press Tony back against the wall and steal another kiss, this time less urgent, soft and simple, just like he liked it. Kissing had always been part of the romance, had been sweet and like a pledge of love, but never had it been this passionate and exciting and _right_ even when they were taking it slow. So much had changed. Being trapped in his own time stream had made him realize how much he'd held back, how much he hadn't allowed himself to _give_ of himself, how much Steve had missed out on because Captain America was more important. He'd had too much time to realize so many things about his own relationships to hold back anymore.

And now? Now he had Tony. Finally. After so many years of being blind to what they could be. “I missed you,” he whispered against Tony's throat and pulled him close.

“I figured that out myself, Winghead,” Tony whispered back with the the softest hint of amusement, patting a hand against his left shoulder, but it was gratifying to hear the slight hitch in his voice as he said it. It was no secret to anyone who knew him better, that Tony didn’t always believe the best of himself. Sometimes a simply statement of affection could take his breath away, because deep down part of him always assumed that he wasn’t really worthy of love.

Steve grinned against his skin, not ready to pull away just now. He had made it his mission to prove Tony wrong about that. “Please, Tony, _please_ tell me that you don't have to run back to Seattle right away. Tell me there's no urgent business, please. I really need you _right now_ , before the next big thing calls both of us away.”

Tony released a huff of air and Steve held himself as still as he could against him while his lips kissed a trail up towards Tony’s throat and along his jaw. “God, Steve,” he practically whined, “when did you get so... God. There's always something, isn't there? You run away to the next crisis all the time, and... I... really... should...”

“Stay,” Steve urged. “Just stay. I really missed you so much and I’ve rushed all the way here because I thought you’d be gone again before I would make it. I just want to be with you for a while.”

Recently there had always been something that called one of them away. They hadn't even shared a real meal in weeks. And Steve wasn't telling Tony even half about the crisis situations he'd had to do deal with – but of course, Tony knew when something was going on, because he wasn't stupid. He knew too much about how the world worked, how Avengers – secret or not – were always busy. So he kissed Tony, not just to cut off the things he might list that he really should be taking care of right at this moment instead of staying with Steve, but like an apology, like an assertion, like a mark of all the minutes he'd been thinking of him unable to get home to him, and Tony clung to him as if it hadn’t been any different for him.

“I didn’t expect to see you,” Tony whispered. “I never know when you’re around.”

And that was another little problem they were facing. Things could have been so much easier if they'd still permanently lived in the same place; but with the way things had turned out recently – Steve essentially taking over as unofficial head of what they were slowly reforming into SHIELD and Tony building a company half the country away – it wasn't even clear they _weren't_ living here together. It was just that they were never really here for any length of time. Perhaps they were living here and they were just both away on business too much and that was why they hadn't even talked about this yet. At some point they would have to talk about it. Steve made a mental note to bring it up soon.

Very soon.

After all Tony had just bought and renovated a house in Seattle, had sold the Avenger's Mansion where they had made so many memories together, where for the longest time it had been the two of them together every day – and often just the two of them in the early years. He'd sold it to Luke Cage, so there were still Avengers there, but it wasn't the two of them anymore...

“Upstairs,” Tony finally whispered, and this time it sounded just a little like plea. Steve was glad that he did not wear the armor right now, because that made it easier to pull him away from the wall, nearly lifting him up and carrying him a few steps, to drag him down the corridor towards Tony's special elevator that went up to the penthouse. He had no idea how long this would last, but he better make the best of it while it lasted.

“I missed you so much,” Steve chanted against his lips, just before he pressed him against the elevator wall and kissed him again – hard this time, letting the fire build now that he knew they would have a little time and privacy.

“I really can't stay,” Tony muttered apologetically. “Not long, Steve. There's... There's so much to.. take care of. I need to get back. But, damn, Steve, I've missed you so damn much. I was thinking about you all the time. All the fucking time, Steve. It's,” and his voice faltered, language turning into a distracted sigh, before coming back, “distracting.” Tony's blue eyes were shining, not just with want. Regret, perhaps. Steve just hoped he wasn't going to run back to Seattle right now and leave him here like this. Because he wasn't sure he would be able to let him go. He honestly wanted nothing more than a few stolen moments with the lover he didn't see anywhere near often enough now that they were finally together; just a few stolen moments before duty called him back to work.

Life was really unfair sometimes.

“I missed you too. So much.” And as the the elevator rode up they just stayed like this, embracing each other, reluctant to let go.

They got out of the elevator in slightly more dignified fashion as he pulled Tony out by the hand, leading him towards the bedroom. He had not been back to the penthouse since he'd left Tony lying there alone and sleeping in his bed a few days ago, and he was surprised at the sudden feeling of coming home. He had often made his home with the Avengers, but this was different.

So very different.

Now that it was finally him and Tony trying to build a life together.

And he wanted that. A life together. Here or anywhere, just as long as it was the two of them. Finally.

He took a moment to peer at Tony in his black business suit jacket and white shirt. “Are these even really your clothes?” he asked as he tugged on Tony's tie playfully as they moved through the living room space.

Tony rolled his eyes, then kept them firmly on the ceiling again which like before made Steve feel like something was up, and then his clean and mostly unwrinkled suit jacket vanished to leave him in his dark, close fitting jeans and a dark t-shirt. Steve did not have much love for Extremis and the things that Tony had done to himself with it, but he smiled despite of himself, when he realized that Tony had probably run out of his new home or workshop when he'd been called in. It was a very Tony thing to do.

“Happy?”

“Very,” he admitted with a grin. It was still hard to wrap his mind around the notion that Tony could build the armor from nanites stored in his bones and that these little nanites could in fact form any other layer of fabric to make up clothes around him. “I'm just glad there are still some clothes left for me to get you out of. Anything else would have been a major disappointment.”

“Ah,” Tony said and then shook his head. “I think I need a shower first. I don't remember how long I was working before I was called to play Jurassic Park vs. Robots in the streets of New York. But I'm filthy.”

“That sounds like a promise.”

Tony pushed against his arm in a playful way for the bad pun, but grinned. “Could be.”

So apparently nobody was in a hurry to run away right now. That was an even better promise.

“Want some company?” he asked.

“How could I ever resist such an offer by Captain America?” he asked, easily turning towards the bathroom and pulling at the rim of his shirt.

“Leave it on,” Steve ordered. “I've been waiting to get close enough to you to get you out of your clothes for hours. Now don't spoil my fun.”

Tony stopped mid motion, looked back at him and smiled with twinkling blue eyes. “Get your hands back on me then.”

He was only too happy to oblige.

They ground up against each other under the shower like teenagers. There was still an urgency to their kisses, to their touches. “We can make love right here,” Tony whispered in his ear and he looked even more flushed under the hot spray of the water. But some part of Steve wanted to do this right; and having hot shower sex and then giving both of them the excuse to run to the next Avenger's thing that cropped up was not what he had in mind.

“No,” he said. “Patience, sweetheart. We both waited for this. Let's not rush it now.”

“God, Steve, really.” Tony whined. “Patience is a virtue and all that, but it really isn't one of my strong suits.”

“Don't sell yourself short, Tony.” He ground against his leg, letting him feel how much he wanted that too, how much control it took to not take what he wanted right now. Tony shuddered and pulled him closer, their skin slick and warm. They kissed again.

Finally, it was Tony who ended it and pushed Steve out of the shower stall. “You do drive me crazy, you know that?”

Steve had to laugh. They had both shown time and time again how that went both ways, but now it was really that different. His whole body was singing with anticipation as they moved to the bed together. They were both already panting and Steve grasped both of Tony's hands in one of his, pulling them above his head.

“Wow,” Tony gasped, a wondering look in his eyes. “You're being possessive today.” His words were followed by a breathless chuckle.

He grinned down at him. “I'm sorry. I'll let you have your way with me next time.”

Tony's eyes darkened, pupils already dilated a bit. “You make the prettiest promises.”

Tony shivered as he trailed his free hand along his torso and then along his hips. “I really want to watch you come for me, Tony.”

Surprised, Tony laughed, half turned on and half breathless. Steve knew it got to him when he was assertive in bed. For some reason he hadn't expected Steve to speak his mind pretty clearly about all the things he wanted when it came to sex. And Steve had been surprised when he found that Tony flirted outrageously, but often didn't outright ask much for himself when it came to this. It made it even sexier when he actually did take charge and showed Steve exactly what he wanted.

He didn't let go of his wrists and Tony didn't strain in his hold, only arched up a bit too curiously follow his movements, as he pulled a condom and lube out of the nightstand drawer with his free hand. “It's so sexy that I know that I didn't stock up recently,” Tony purred.

It was Steve's turn to chuckle. Yes, clearly it was time they had this talk about living together and soon.

He ripped the little square pack open with his teeth, only softly pressing down on Tony's wrists to let him know he wanted him to stay still. Whatever he told anyone, he had seen that Tony could be a very patient man, but not when it came to too much teasing. He took a moment to prepare and then let his fingers trail a line between Tony's legs, nudging his strong thighs apart, and for now ignoring the flushed hard cock that was waiting there.

Tony nearly whined. “Steve!”

But Steve wasn't swayed. He started moving his thumb, soothingly along the soft inside of one of Tony's wrists, as he teased around his entrance with two fingers of the other hand, sheathed inside the condom.

He shifted a little, lying comfortably on his side, pressed along the length of Tony's pliant body, so that he could feel his own half-erect cock leaving a wet trail of pre-come against his hip . “Shh,” he soothed, but stared intently down at Tony, who was looking up at him with wide eyes. “Come for me first. Just like this. Then I'll give you anything you want.”

And Tony actually bit his lip instead of trusting himself to utter any words.

His fingers slipped in, first slowly with the help of the lube, then possessively and less gently. Tony helplessly thrust forward to make him hurry up, despite the burn it must be causing.

“Easy,” he whispered.

But Tony made a near growling sound and strained against his hold now for the first time, turning his head to try and entice him into a kiss. He couldn't resist, let it happen, answered with tongue and teeth and all the passion that wanted out, his hand setting a steady pace in time with Tony's own desperate thrusts. His fingers brushed against Tony's prostate. He could feel the moment when his fingers curved just against the right spot and Tony quivered in his hold. He gave in to his own longing then, rubbed up against Tony's side and lost himself in the sensation.

Tony gasped and it was the sweetest sound, the last straw that broke his own defenses. This was not the time and place to follow a plan. He just wanted Tony, with the burning heat of desire. It was burning in his veins like the serum that had given him the strength to hold his lover down so easily.

“God, I missed you,” Tony breathed and Steve sank into him, body, mind and soul. He lost himself in it, cherishing the undisturbed moment while it lasted.

* * *

“That was intense,” Tony whispered against his collarbone. They were nestled in the blankets, holding each other close. He was stroking a hand lazily along Tony's arm, asking himself if he could ask Tony to stay. Just for one night; just for now, while things were quiet.

“Only you, Tony; only you,” he said and smiled. “Only you can make me lose control like this.”

Tony regarded him through half lidded eyes. “I hope that is a compliment.”

He kept smiling and didn't stop his stroking. “Next time,” he finally whispered against Tony's ear, “You can have me like this.” With Tony it was always so easy to speak his mind in a way that it had never been with anyone else. He couldn't explain why that was. He knew that Tony wouldn't judge him for what he wanted, but he had never really been afraid of being judged. But then – well, it had been hard enough not driving his lovers away.

With intensity. With single-mindedness. With his need for closeness and control. With who he was.

“I love you,” Tony admitted and pressed his face against the naked skin of his chest and rested there for a bit, before he whispered. “And it's not just because I discovered that you make the most enticing promises ever.”

His fingers were streaking through Tony's hair, massaging the skull, and Tony stretched his muscles like a lazy cat. This was the moment to ask. “I'd love to see you outside of the bedroom occasionally, you know? Can you stay?”

Apparently he had been thinking about that too, because it immediately got Tony's attention. “We haven't seen much of each other in the last few weeks.”

“Do you think you have time for dinner?” He could cook something or take Tony to that little diner he loved. Perhaps they could even catch a movie. It would be nice to just dress casually and go out with the man he loved. They used to do that all the time, but now something always got in the way. It had been so long since they had just been Steve and Tony, together somewhere.

Tony sat up and Steve knew what the answer was going to be right away, just from the apologetic look and the way Tony was suddenly holding himself, shoulders hanging and lips curving down. He was feeling bad about disappointing Steve. “I'm sorry. Not today, Steve. I really want to, but... not today. There's something I have to take care of back in Seattle.” 

It wasn't like he hadn't expected it, and despite the disappointment, he didn’t want to see Tony tense up, just because he had work to get back to. So he stroked his hand up and down Tony's arm, hoping to make the tension go away again. “It's fine. I know you're busy.” He tried to smile sincerely and not let the disappointment show on his face.

Building up a company was hard work and Tony had had to do it before. Steve knew that he could not ask for more of his time than he was willing to give right now. He shouldn’t push.

“I should really head back,” Tony said, but didn't move from his place in the covers. “I really should.”

Although he hadn’t moved, it was clear that half his mind was already gathering up his clothes and calculating flight plans to go back. Steve couldn't blame him for that. He got like that too whenever something needed his involvement. His own communicator chose that exact moment to make a soft, but insistent beep. He sighed. “Looks like the world needs some attention again.”

“I'd be happier to keep all your attention on me,” Tony said with that deceptively light tone, that usually meant his words were less of a joke than he wanted to admit. He slipped out of bed with one fluid movement and then stopped right in the middle of it to hiss. There was a blue bruise forming on his thigh, and it wasn't one that Steve's hand's had left there.

“Muscles going stiff?”

“Damn all the dinosaurs,” Tony muttered. “I really don't have time for this.”

Steve chuckled. “But you came when you were needed.”

They dressed together, both with fast efficient movements. There was no discussion of how easy life would be if they weren't who they were or how something always got in the way these days. Not now. They knew the other had been an Avenger long enough to know and understand.

He checked in with Sharon, glad to find out that it wasn't a world threatening crisis, but that some Secret Avengers matter needed a decision. It gave him time to walk with Tony up to the roof where his flying car was waiting for him. Tony kissed him, before he called up the armor.

Impulsively, Steve reached out before he could hide behind the visor of the mask and kissed him hard. “I could... I could come to Seattle. I have a flying car after all.”

Tony's eyes went wide then narrowed. “Not... Not a good idea at the moment. There's still barely any... furniture. You saw it last time. And I really shouldn't let myself be distracted. We have some urgent deadlines to meet there.”

“Didn't look so bad last time I was there. I think I even left some stuff.” He couldn't even say why, but he knew immediately that Tony was holding something back. “Things not going well?”

Tony sighed. “It's complicated... You know, new workshop, new company and half the world thinking I shouldn't be allowed even to have one. But yeah, perhaps not now? I can come here whenever you want me to.” He smiled, his expression going so soft that it wasn't hard to see the love there.

“I don't mind if you're busy. I like to see you work.”

Tony stared. Apparently that had answered his protests in an unexpected way. Already jumping ahead Steve made plans about how to best make room to go to Seattle for a bit in the evening. “I could cook,” he urged.

“Not this week Steve,” and Tony suddenly looked really sad. “Really, I just... There's too much on my plate right now. Pepper wants to talk strategy over Chinese and we are planning a little event for possible investors.... I'm just....”

“Nervous,” Steve supplied, because the quiet relaxation he's seen in Tony when they'd been together downstairs had gone.

“Distracted,” Tony said at the same time. Then he smiled again, calmer. “Let me just finish this one project and then… I’m all yours.”

“We really need to talk about this.” He suddenly pulled Tony close despite the armor, giving Iron Man the kind of hug he used to give him all the time, before he had known who was hiding under the metal shell. “I know things are moving fast, but we're both so busy. I really want to make sure we see each other more.”

And that's when Tony's blue eyes went even wider, blood tinged his cheeks red. “You want to move in?”

“Well, not exactly, but yeah... I wanted to make sure we know... We could live together.”

“Or go vacationing in Madripoor,” Tony said and a grin formed, but his eyes were still wide and he looked flustered. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I don’t even have a fully functioning workshop yet, but there are…” - and he hesitated there, suddenly launching himself into the air and hovering before him in his armor - “clothes. I mean, you have a space in my drawers and my… Well, there is space. Oh god, we really need to talk about this, don’t we?”

Steve chuckled. “I’m glad there is space. I just hope space isn’t a bad thing.”

“Not the one in my drawers. It would have been so much easier to make that particular discovery years ago when we were living in the same spot nearly 24/7. Now look at us, being together but not being on the same team even.”

“Things got more complicated.” Neither of them really needed the reminder, but it was still nice to be able to say it and not feel any sort of regret.

“You don’t say.”

He laughed up at Tony and wished life could just be quiet for a few days. Perhaps then he would simply turn up on Tony’s doorstep in Seattle and they could have more of the perfect stolen moments for however long it was going to last.

His communicator beeped softly and reminded him that he too had places to be. It was still nice that Tony leaned down for a final kiss, before closing the mask. “Really,” he said, softly his voice modulated. “We need to talk. There’s something I need to tell you. And I think… I think we need to figure out if we’re trying to live together, or not. So, yeah, let me do what I have to do and then let’s find the time to talk things through.

“We’ll make time. Both of us. Promise.”

Tony swished away like an oversized red and gold bird and Steve hurried back to his job. Despite paperwork and some unpleasant political incidences he was in a good mood for the rest of the day and Natasha smirked at him when she caught him humming to himself and Sharon only rolled her eyes at him every time she saw him. “You are the sappiest lover on this whole wide earth,” she told him, suppressing a grin. “Now stop mooning Commander, we need you to focus.”

Yes, he was in a good mood and his friends and his team seemed to like it that way.

He texted Tony that evening, but there was no answer. He was probably busy working, without anyone who could pull him out of his workshop.

Steve didn’t mind.

* * *

After he had reviewed some of the data that Beast had shoved his way, he met with Susan Storm the next morning. A Mole Man attack had wrecked havoc on the streets in front of the Baxter Building and New York’s public servants had voiced some concerns that made Steve step in himself. He was only going to survey the damage and make sure everyone was alright. The Fantastic Four could be trusted to keep their own home safe, but after all the superhero community had been through, he felt it was his responsibility to show support and make sure that the public knew they were all working together to keep things from escalating.

“It’s really not all that bad. And when Reed talked to Tony this morning he said, that even if the latest catastrophe wasn’t covered by insurance, the Maria Stark Foundation was still in a good place to step up and make sure the city gets paid.”

“You talked to Tony already?”

“Actually, he called Reed right after it happened. He had some science to talk through with him.” She smiled a little mischievously. “You know how they get.”

He rolled his eyes in mock commiseration. Susan knew all about building a life with a genius whose mind ran from project to project. “Don’t I just? We should sit down and share notes sometime. Are they working on something?”

Susan used a hand to get one long blond strand out of her eyes, as they walked side by side to the worst ripple in the ground, where the earth had broken up and taken a bit of the street with it. “I think so…” she said carefully. “There have been a lot of calls between them lately. Since Reed came across these other dimensional readings and went to check it out with Tony.”

Steve clearly remembered the report. He had gone over it with Maria Hill and later with Beast, because he wanted to make sure there weren’t any other-dimensional surprises lurking there in all the data he couldn’t make heads nor tails of. Normally he could have asked Tony, but he hadn’t, and he realized that he had forgotten all about it after Beast had told him the data seemed to check out. He remembered Beast saying: “We were lucky. The portal closed on its own and it was just a small opening, a gap in the fabric of the universe. Someone could have come through if it hadn’t been just this tiny pocket dimension, but Reed and Tony where there and nothing did come through. Let’s count our blessings and move on, dear.”

“Is it something…?”

Susan shrugged. “I don’t know. They don’t seem like they are working on the next Doomsday machine and I know Reed. He keeps to himself when bad stuff happens, but aside from running one analysis after another and vanishing to his lab as he always does, he spends his family time with us as always. Why? Is Tony in trouble?”

The easy smiles and the joy in the blue eyes from yesterday were so bright in his memory that he had no trouble recalling that Tony had seemed happy. “I don’t think so. Not more than usual. He’s working hard on building up Resilient. I’m glad he’s not shutting himself off. That would be much more worrying.”

“Yeah, never good when that happens.”

“It’s probably about the armor. It’s Tony. One way or another it’s always about Iron Man and Reed is the one person he trusts enough to help him with the new model.” It was just like Tony to have his secrets and he was really in no position to criticize him for it, with the many things he couldn’t talk about.

So he put it to the back of his mind and forgot all about it for the time being.

* * *

That evening he ended up sitting alone in the Avengers Tower kitchen and pondered if he wouldn’t be better off going back to his apartment. But he had his own room here too, even if he had come to spend the little down time he had mostly in Tony’s. It was the first time in such a long while that he was sitting here dressed simply in jeans and a t-shirt that what he really wanted was to share the moment of relaxation with someone. With someone specific.

He pulled out his phone and dialed. This time Tony picked up immediately. “Sorry, for not answering earlier. I was in a meeting. I have some brilliant people here. Another two or three days and this thing on the paper will be a prototype clean energy car.”

Hearing the excitement in his voice made his heart well with love. “You are hands deep in work?”

Tony chuckled. “Yes.” Something clicked loudly in the background like some metal parts had moved against each other. “Yes, you could say that.”

“I’m not in Madripoor this time,” he suggested and waited for Tony to tell him off or say that was good, because then they could see each other. He knew he had already asked. Trying to be clear he added: “And for once there is no need at all to be on the Helicarrier.”

“I’m still in Seattle and as we just established drowning in work… But, wait, is this like…”

“I don’t think we are going to have phone sex, sweetheart. I’m a couple of decades too old for these crazy modern ideas people keep slinging my way. And I'm standing in the middle of the Avengers' kitchen.”

“Oh,” Tony chuckled. “I’m sure you were the one who basically suggested it just now. And I know you are very adaptable.”

“No really,” Steve said. “I just wanted to hear your voice and… I don’t know… My offer still stands. I could come over. If you want me to. We don’t have to do this one the phone.”

“I thought the problem was that we don’t see much of each other outside the bedroom? And wouldn’t you have to run again the minute a call comes in? You need to get someone to cover for you occasionally, when we want this to work.” Tony sounded distracted and there was the sudden hum of a machine springing to life that could be heard somewhere in the background.

“You never know. Shouldn’t stop us from at least trying to spend some time with each other.”

“That’s very Cap of you, that attitude.” His laugh sounded breathless and distracted and Steve yearned to be there to see it reach his eyes. “Sorry, I’ve been working hard on something and it’s been eating my brain for the whole day and now... I didn’t even look at my phone until Pepper came to give me a dressing down for not being available for the hard working people who are building up my new company. I really want to see you.”

“But it’s not a good time right now?” He understood. He really did. It wasn’t like he’d been repeating that same sentences quite a few times recently. Something Susan had said to him came back to him at that exact moment and he asked lightly: “Doesn't have anything to do with what you and Reed are working on?”

“Me and Reed?” Over the phone it was hard to tell if Tony sounded taken aback or cautious. “What makes you think I’m working on a project with Reed?”

“Oh, just something Susan said today.”

“Oh,” Tony replied and his voice didn’t change at all. “Oh. Is Reed spending too much time in the lab again? We had some recent results to discuss. Nothing to worry about.”

“About the recent portal breach? I had some questions about that one too. Perhaps you can give me a run down when we see each other next time.”

There was a slight pause and then Tony hissed as if he had hurt himself.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, just… I should try to work and not be on the phone at the same time.” The last words were muffled and Steve had a feeling that Tony was sucking on his fingertips, helping to make his assumption that he’d hurt himself into certainty. At least it seemed it hadn’t bad.

“Sorry,” Steve said, but grinned. “So, portal breach?” He wouldn’t get sidetracked.

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Next time. Nothing much to say about it though. Minor incident and no supervillains were thrown at us.” Suddenly Tony’s voice went soft. “Sorry, can I call you back? There’s… There’s something I need to take care of right now. Got to run.”

He wanted to sigh, but held back. When he’d been on one secret mission after the other Tony hadn’t complained once, hadn’t asked for anything. Perhaps Sharon hadn’t been wrong when she’d warned Steve that one time that he asked for too much from his lovers, that he could be quite a handful when he got demanding. He was trying not to fall back into old patterns and so far Tony had made it easy for him. After all these years and all the things they knew about each other, perhaps Tony had learned a thing or two about how to handle him. “Iron Man business?” he asked and couldn’t keep the rueful tone of regret out of his own voice, because he knew a few things about this man too. But he didn’t just ask as lover, but because this was something he had to know about. “I’m free. I could help, if you happen to need backup.”

“Not that kind, no. More Tony Stark business. But we know how well that goes sometimes.”

They did indeed. “Nothing I can help you with though?” He poured himself a glass of milk from the fridge and waited as patently as possible for Tony’s reply.

It was Tony who sighed, audibly. “I don’t think so, Cap, but I appreciate the offer.”

When no more information was forthcoming, Steve nodded to himself. “Run then,” he said. “And whatever it is be safe.”

“When I talk about business sharks, I don’t mean it literally. Nobody is going to kill me here at Resilient.”

He chuckled. “I know that. But your life takes a turn for the dangerous all the time and it wouldn’t be the first time that business turned out to be more dangerous than you expected. So do me the favor and don’t get into trouble you can’t get out of.”

The line didn’t close, but it took a moment before Tony answered, like he was hesitating, holding something back: “It’s really not that kind of trouble. But no promises. I’ll try, okay?”

 _“When I tell you something like that, do you ever believe me?”_ Tony had asked him when he'd been in Madripoor. _“No, not really,”_ he had answered, knowing that Tony had a tendency to get tight in the middle of it without any care to his own well being. “That’s all I’m asking,” he said and tried not to think too hard about the sudden tense feeling in his gut.

The line went dead and Steve was left alone again. Things would calm down soon. There was no doubt in his mind, that Tony would build up the new company and be back in business and then things would be less of a time strain, with Pepper as his partner and CEO. He had seen it happen before. Even when he lost faith in himself, there was nothing that could keep Tony down for long. He would just have to be patient for a little longer and give him the time to do what needed be done. 

Steps sounded loudly in the hallway. Apparently Steve had been so absorbed in his own thoughts that he had missed the sound of the elevator coming up. But he knew who it was before they entered the kitchen, the soft conversation and laughter giving them away. “Sam,” Steve said before they rounded the corner, “good to see you.”

Bucky grinned at him. “What are you doing here? Does the world not need her top superhero commander this evening?” Then he looked around, eyes narrowing a bit. “Alone? Stark already gone? You’re not moping are you, old man?”

He met Sam’s eyes and kept himself from answering Bucky with a grin of his own. “He’s as busy as I am. He wouldn’t be Tony if he wasn’t. He returned to Seattle yesterday.”

“Oh,” Bucky’s brow creased as he sat down at the table. Natasha was still on the mission Steve himself had sent her on and Steve knew that while Bucky favored his privacy a lot more these days than the young sergeant he had known during World War II had, he also knew that he and Natasha were building something good. They too had to carve out the moments of time they could spend together when the opportunity presented itself. “He hasn’t been around a lot, I think. I mean I mostly spend time at the apartment, but even with Avengers’ business…”

“He comes when you call him.”

“Of course, of course. That’s not what I mean.” He chuckled to himself and pulled out a chair at the table for himself to sit down. “So typical to get all defensive there, Commander. It’s just he usually hangs around a bit with Carol and Thor and to make sure I don’t know - that all out kitchen appliances work as they should and then spends a bit of time in the kitchen so he can catch up with Jarvis. And then you come along and take up all his time and he just runs out without hanging around.”

“Ah,” Steve said deadpan. “I see you’re all getting to know each other.”

“I don’t think he even remembers the way we met for the first time. I just told him he was the one to give me your shield.”

“And Carol tells me that then he gave your lover boy the shovel talk,” Sam said, clearly amused by the idea of anyone talking to Tony Stark in that way.

“And he took me very seriously, despite not remembering that I came for him back then,” Bucky added with a self-satisfied grin.

Although some time had passed, it was still hard to hear about that time… when he and Tony had fought each other and then he had died. From what he’d found in the reports and files Tony had run himself ragged before and after with trying to do what he thought was best - and without asking anyone for help. Steve understood better now, that in his own way Tony had tried to protect them, but even with that knowledge it made his blood boil sometimes to look at how single-mindedly he had stuck to his decisions, even when things had already gone to hell and back. Things had gone downhill so fast and they’d all made mistakes.

Both Bucky and Sam immediately noticed when his mood shifted and Bucky looked up: “Sorry, I know that’s all…”

“Complicated,” Steve admitted. “It wasn’t like Tony was to blame for the long game the Red Skull was playing. I’m just glad you did not get to take your revenge.”

“Close call.” From the moment his programming had failed and set him free, he had chosen to be truthful about all the things he had done in his life. Steve appreciated that he wasn’t lying about this either. “And it’s easy to work with him now as Iron Man.”

“You’re the Avengers. I hope so.”

“Don’t you miss it?” Sam asked. “Being a top tier Avengers?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I see more than enough action in my current job, thanks.” He shrugged his shoulders and leaned back against the counter. “Would make things easier for me and Tony, perhaps. Perhaps not. Being on the same team didn’t stop us from butting heads. But it sure helped to… live in one space.”

“Does that mean you’re no longer living on the Helicarrier?”

“I probably won’t get around to hang around much wherever I chose to live. And it’s the same for Tony. He will have more time to be in New York as soon as the car launch happened and Resilient is running. But that doesn’t mean he won’t zip from place to place even when things get calmer.” For some reason both his friends were watching him silently now. “What?”

Bucky shrugged and Sam said: “Hard to see either your lives ever calming down for long.”

“It probably won’t happen,” he admitted and shrugged. “Hasn’t stopped us from having good times before.”

“I don’t think I need to hear about the details.”

Steve threw a towel that was hanging by the sink at Bucky so fast that even with his Winter Soldier reflexes he couldn’t even duck out of the way.

“So, everything is alright? Why are you hanging around in the kitchen alone then? You weren’t waiting for your best friends in the world to come around?” Bucky singsonged. Seeing him in lighter mood was really a nice change of pace.

“Actually I wanted to go to Seattle, but Tony was really… well, busy. For weeks he jumped at the chance to get to see me and he asked me to come out there all the time, and now I have to cope with the realization that work is more important than I am, as soon as I actually have some time on my hands.” He tried to smile, because he knew that wasn’t really the way Tony looked at the world. It was just the way things went sometimes. “I promise I won’t have time for myself long enough for it go boring. I’m expecting some mission reports and then I’m sure there will be no more sitting around. And then Tony will complain that I’m never around. Just the way it goes with us.” Which never happened. Tony made jokes, but he never really complained. Perhaps because they had known each other for so long, or perhaps because they knew how crazy their lives could get, Tony rarely made demands of that kind. In the beginning he had once admitted, that he had waited so long for Steve to want him, that he was really okay with whatever it was Steve could give him now. And perhaps Steve had not had enough down time alone since they had fallen into this relationship. He needed to learn that. Perhaps it was something different altogether. “I know I can be a handful in a relationship and I’m trying not to make the same mistakes I’ve made before.”

“Sound plan,” Sam said, but he didn’t laugh. So far he hadn’t ever outright said anything, but Steve knew he had been worried about what this new relationship might bring.

“I think it’s just… Not having anything to do now, makes me nervous. It feels like something is supposed to happen. And… I’m keeping so many secrets, that I’m beginning to see secrets everywhere.”

That got Sam’s attention immediately. “Stark’s keeping secrets from you?”

Steve wanted to take it back immediately, wondered why he had even said it out loud. “It’s not like that. I don’t think he’s really hiding something. But there’s so much about what is going on with Seattle that he doesn’t actually talk about and we barely had time recently to talk about anything, so that’s neither here nor there.” There was, of course, also the nagging feeling that Tony and Reed were working on something together and were keeping it from him and Susan. And he knew it was unfair to jump to conclusions after just one short conversation, but secrets had been what had driven them to act against each other in the first place and he did not want a repeat of that. Not now.

Not ever.

“I don’t know. I’m jumping to conclusions. I know that- He’s been under a lot of stress. I know Babbage is on his case and there have been attempts on him and I read all the reports and he does give answers when I ask about it, but it’s just like there are things he wants to keep from me and I know him, so I think he might not tell me because he thinks he has to do this alone. That worries me. He has a tendency to get hurt, when he doesn’t ask for help. But then I know I have a tendency to go a bit overboard when it comes to the people I love, so...” He sighed and stopped. He hadn’t even know that all of that had bottled up, waiting to get out. “I guess, Tony and I need to talk about more than just moving in together, huh?”

His friends were watching him with equal expressions now, Bucky from where he was sitting with his arms folded in front of his chest, metal arm hidden behind synthetic skin, and Sam leaning in the doorway, hands in the pockets of his jeans. Sam was the first to smile.

“You know what, Steve?” Bucky said. “I think what you need is a bit of a work out.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed readily. “Sounds like you need a bit of a smashing.”

“Me?” Steve asked back innocently. “You think the two of you can take me?”

It sounded like such a good idea, that he missed the look Bucky and Sam exchanged behind his back on their way to the elevator.

* * *

It was late by the time that Tony returned from their Stark Resilient facility and it was raining cats and dogs. Pepper had called them all in to give them a run down on the state of their financial backing and they had set the final plans on how to proceed. Stane was still somewhere out there and Tony knew he wasn’t the only one holding a grudge. And it didn’t matter, as long as he could make sure that their attacks went against Tony Stark and not against Resilient and the people involved with it.

He would take measures to ensure it. There were just too many things on his mind and he needed to sort out one at a time.

The arc would be finished in a few days, but Reed had not made any tangible headway with finding the right place to send Steve back to. Tony had proposed using the arc to accelerate the process and they were now trying to figure out a way to best use the data they had gathered so far. It had been hard to focus on the real problem of his own start-up business while running possible equations in his head.

Steve wanted to get home and _Steve_ \- _his Steve_ , he thought with possessive amazement, obviously wanted to come see him. And Tony really wanted nothing else. He also didn’t want to force their other dimensional guest into meeting himself. It was becoming the kind of predicament Tony had wanted to avoid.

But it wouldn’t be a problem. He wouldn’t allow it to become a problem. The easiest way to get everything back in order was to help Steve get home and then talk to the other Steve about how he felt about living with someone who people wanted to kill more than usual. He knew Steve. He would love the chance to help and protect. And then Tony could also tell him the truth about why he had been so secretive. The other Steve would never have to know.

There wouldn’t be a problem.

He got out of his red BMW roadster, not bothering to drive it all the way down into the garage. It was just a car, not as good or innovative as the car they would build, not as precious and exceptional as his armor was to him. And he had better things to do right now.

He had another night of work ahead of himself, if he wanted to find a quick way out of this situation for everyone.

The rain immediately got into his eyes, drenching his hair, and pattering against his coat. Calling up the armor for the few steps it would take him to get inside seemed like overkill, so he hurried through the wet puddles that were separating him from the door and had no time to even think about the sound of rustling bird wings and leaves behind him as he finally reached the door and made ready to punch in the code and push his fingers against the panel to let himself in.

He did not expect the door to open as soon as he was in front of it. “I heard the car,” Steve said and grinned widely. He was wearing his grey hoodie sweater that he’d made his garment of choice when he went out running and the hood was up, obscuring his face a little, and an umbrella was dangling in his grip. “I was about to jump out to get you.”

“My hero,” Tony mumbled and it was heartbreaking how many things both Steves had in common. It was dangerous how much this made him yearn to be in New York instead, sharing his luxurious silk sheets with the right Steve and falling asleep in his embrace. The smell of delicious food reached him where he stood and his stomach growled loud enough for Steve to catch the sound. “And you made dinner, too. Is there a handbook for being perfect?” Because if there was then Steve Rogers seemed to carry a copy of it in any world.

“I wasn’t sure whether you had something to eat already, but I was getting hungry so I thought I might as well,” Steve said and grinned shyly and stepped back, opening the door wide, so Tony could step into the warmth of his home.

All Steves it seemed were too good to be true. It didn’t help with the guilty feeling at the back of his mind.

Not one bit.

As the door closed behind him, he did not bother to look out again. But even if he had, it would have been unlikely that in the dark and with the rain he would have seen Redwing perched on a tree, miserably ducking his head in the rain and watching the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can also find me on [tumblr ](http://navaan.tumblr.com/). This fic has a post [on there](http://navaan.tumblr.com/post/143798515809/fanfic-mcu616-still-right-here-stevetony) in case you want to comment/review/reblog there. [My ask box](http://navaan.tumblr.com/ask) is open if you have questions.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Mithen and TonySnark_SassRogers for beta reading and cheering on!


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